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'Jordan' has to quit after near blinding
BRITAIN'S number one Jordan lookalike has been forced to quit after she was blinded temporarily by a freak accident while cooking breakfast for her husband and two young children.
Alison Murphy was reaching into the microwave oven to pick up a poached egg – which was boiling in a bowl of water and vinegar – when it exploded and her eyes took the full force of the blast.
The 42-year-old Barnsley mum, who found fame and fortune after she was mistaken for the model at Ascot races in 2002, was blind for a week after husband Lyndon rushed her to hospital in agony.
Specialists managed to restore Alison's sight by removing the fragments of egg and yolk from behind her right eye. But her left eyeball was so badly burned and scarred she'll have to wear glasses for the rest of her life.
Alison says she doesn't feel confident enough to face the cameras anymore – and announced her premature retirement after six lucrative years on the celebrity circuit.
The builder's wife said: "I'm going to miss all the personal appearances and photo shoots up and down the country, but my confidence was shot to pieces by the accident, and I won't be going back to work after what's happened."
Alison didn't know if she'd lost her eyesight altogether at first.
"It all happened so quickly. The poached egg seemed to explode in my face as I reached into the microwave, and brought the bowl into the open air.
"Everything went blank. My eyelids were bound together by the hot egg and the vinegar, and I was in absolute agony screaming with the pain."
Alison's young sons – Deniem, seven, and Oliver, 12 – thought their mum was larking about to begin with.
"They thought I was playing about just joking, but Lyndon realised straight away how badly I'd been hurt, and bundled me in the car, and rushed me to the hospital with a wet towel clutched to my face."
Alison ended up receiving specialist care at Lincoln County Hospital.
"I couldn't see anything at all, and I didn't know whether I'd get my sight back or not. It was awful. My eyes were as big as tennis balls, and my face was really badly swollen.
"The specialists had to prise open my eyes very carefully, and then extricate all the bits of white egg from everywhere."
She lay in a darkened room for a week before the sight in her right eye began to return.
"I couldn't see a lot at first.
Nothing was very distinct, but things have got better bit by bit, and now my right eye's back to normal.
"My left eye is still a problem though – sometimes it's bloodshot and my vision's blurred, and I've got to wear glasses if I want to watch TV or read.
"I've been through six months of treatment, but the doctors say they can't do any more for me now, so I've just got to accept things, and get on with my life.
"The egg caused some horrendous damage – but it's amazing how lucky I've been."
Alison says she's loved entertaining fans over the years.
"I've had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs going round the country over the last six years, but it's in the past now, and I'm just going to have to move on.
"As for poaching eggs you won't catch me anywhere near the microwave in future..."
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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