When a Simple Cold Turned Into a Nightmare

Alex Lewis from Stockbridge, Hampshire, was living his dream life in 2013. He had married his sweetheart, Lucy Townsend, they were raising their two-year-old son, Sam, and together they ran two popular pubs — the Greyhound and the King’s Arms. Life seemed perfect.

Then, everything changed. One November day, Alex caught what he thought was just a cold — “man flu,” as he called it. “Because we owned and lived in a pub and came into contact with lots of people, I assumed it was just seasonal,” he told Metro.

But within days, his condition worsened. He developed a fever, began passing blood in his urine, and his skin turned purple. Alarmed, Lucy called an ambulance. Alex was rushed to Winchester Hospital, where doctors discovered he was battling a devastating Group A streptococcal infection that had invaded his tissues and organs.

He was soon diagnosed with sepsis, septic shock, and necrotizing fasciitis — a rare flesh-eating disease. His kidneys were failing, and doctors gave him only a 3% chance of survival. Lucy was told to say goodbye. “They were going to turn off his life support,” she recalled, “but gave him one more night — just to let us say our final goodbyes.”

Against all odds, Alex survived the night — but his body was irreversibly damaged.

Read Part 2