Hope Gordon – the remarkable resilience behind struggles & success

“I went from being a 12-year-old girl who could do any activity I wanted, to being in so much pain that amputation felt like the only solution.”

This is the remarkable story of Hope Gordon who after a 14-year journey – which has included battling Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), an amputation and missing out on multiple major Games – claimed two incredible Para Canoe World Championship medals.

Her successes, which she jokingly describes as being “a bit mental” given those experiences, came just weeks after the 26-year-old was forced to watch on as her team-mates secured a stunning haul of seven honours at the Tokyo Paralympics.

“There were so many times it felt like the light was never on at the end of the tunnel and then when it was, the tunnel just went on for ever and there wasn’t a way out,” she recalls.

“I just had to keep battling away and to finally have two medals makes me so proud.” _________________________________________

Gordon describes herself as having been a “very active” child, who tried out pretty much anything ranging from horse riding to highland dancing.

She had experienced a little discomfort in her left knee, which had been attributed to growing pains, but the rapid onset of agonising pain down her left leg came “out of the blue” during band practice at school.

“All of a sudden I couldn’t walk,” she recalls.

“My leg got a lot worse pretty quickly to the point where I was a full-time wheelchair user and couldn’t move or touch my leg because it was so painful.”

Medical experts were baffled and treatments, for what was eventually diagnosed as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), only exacerbated the problem.

Gordon and her family carried out their own research in the hope of discovering a remedy and although amputation was against official NHS guidelines she felt that was the only solution.

“I didn’t see how else I could progress and get a better quality of life,” she says. “I didn’t see another option other than amputation because things were pretty grim.”

Gordon describes the next stages as “battles in themselves” as she crowdfunded for the £10,000 needed for the private procedure, while also trying to source a surgeon to carry it out.

After seven postponements Gordon finally underwent the knife on 2nd August 2016, nine years after the onset of the problem she never realised would be permanent.

The then Scottish swimmer had been warned that waking from the procedure and discovering her new reality might be difficult, but within moments she knew she had made the right decision – for her physical and mental wellbeing.

“I just remember the nurse put my notes down on the bed and I just started laughing because ‘oh my leg used to be there’,” she says with a smile.

“You have to remember that beforehand if someone was to touch my leg I would be bedbound for weeks because the pain would be so extreme. Now I was waking up with a blanket over my whole body which was the first time I’d had that in nearly 10 years.”

Gordon learnt to walk with a prosthetic and returned to swimming, but after missing out on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games she decided to try out new sports.

One of her friends from the pool – two-time Paralympic medallist Charlotte Henshaw – had switched to Para Canoe following the Rio 2016 Games and suggested Gordon should try out herself.

The Scot made her British international debut in 2019 and underlined her potential with fourth and fifth place finishes at the respective Europeans and Worlds that year.

The pandemic gave Gordon another 12 months to practice, but shortly before the British Paralympic trials earlier this year she was struck with a “flare up of neurological pain.”

“For two weeks I couldn’t sit on a seat to eat my dinner, never mind sit in a boat, because I was in so much pain,” she says.

“It’s not the CRPS, but it goes into my hip and back and is severe, so I have to be proud that I came as close as I did to being selected and the British Canoeing physios were brilliant.”

Gordon is pragmatic now, but was devastated at the time, having missed out on two Commonwealth Games and a Paralympics as a swimmer before this latest blow.

“I just have to remind myself what my life was like before the 2nd August 2016 and whatever I go though now won’t come close to how tough things were beforehand,” she states.

Gordon sat up on her bed watching overnight from the UK as her rival – and friend – Laura Sugar claimed gold in the KL3 200m event she had narrowly missed out on a place in.

“I was pleased for her,” states Gordon. “It was just tough because she won by more than two seconds and I know we are much closer than that. To have a situation where a World Championships is more competitive than a Paralympics doesn’t make sense to me.”

Two weeks after Sugar’s success Gordon joined her in Copenhagen for the 2021 Worlds. She finished second behind her team-mate, but ahead of the Tokyo silver and bronze medallists.

Gordon then finished second in the VL3 200m race behind Henshaw, an event which was not part of the line-up for Tokyo 2020, but is expected to be included for Paris 2024.

“It had been over two years since my last international race and the second medal was a bit of a surprise, so I’m happy with the outcome of this Worlds,” she says.

“After the last decade though I know I just have to keep going, that’s built into me now, and in terms of my own races I feel there’s much more to come.”

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