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About six weeks ago, 33-year-old Charlie Webster, a British TV presenter, set out on the 3,000-mile charity bike ride, Road to Rio. The path began in Britain and would end in Rio, at the stadium that would host the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Everything was going smoothly. Webster had participated in several fitness charity events before, so she’d known how to properly prepare for this long journey and was even finding time to blog about her experience along the way.
On July 6, things started going south. That day, Webster had written, “I had a pretty rough night last night, I felt so sick and then was sick.”
In spite of her condition, Webster continued to forge on with the rest of the group. But her health kept deteriorating.
16 days later, she wrote, “I went through about an hour of just feeling rubbish, sick, eyes allover [sic] the place and head banging…”
At one point during the journey, Webster was overcome by her illness and vomited – but “gulped down” Paracetamol and kept going until she made it to Rio.
On August 5, while watching the Olympic opening ceremony, Webster truly fell ill and finally went to a hospital. Her doctors initially thought she was dehydrated and administered treatment based on this diagnosis.
Two days later, Webster fell unconscious.
Her doctors suddenly realized they’d been misreading her symptoms and sent her into an induced coma. Somewhere on the road to Rio, Webster had contracted malaria. What had begun as a triumphant, celebratory journey to the Olympics was now a struggle for survival.
Webster has been receiving treatment from some of the best doctors from Rio, Britain, and America. Her mother has remained by her side through the entire duration of her hospital stay, watching over her daughter’s precarious condition.
Today, almost two weeks after she went into a coma, Webster has woken up.
“The fact that Charlie is now conscious is amazing,” her mother admitted. “I am just so thankful that she's able to communicate with us again. It's been the worst imaginable time - we have been beside ourselves with worry but the fact Charlotte is now conscious is amazing.”
Since waking, Charlie has managed to ask her mom if she’d gone to the beach at all, and her doctors think her “neurological results” are looking positive.
Everyone – from her family and friends in Britain to people on Twitter – is wishing Charlie a full and quick recovery.
