My first date with Jordan turned out to be one I’d never forget. By Zania Robinson, 21
As I pulled out my purse to pay for my petrol, I couldn’t help noticing a figure in the queue.
He’s a bit of all right, I thought.
He caught me looking and flashed a smile.
‘You go first,’ he said.
‘Thanks,’ I replied, thinking what a gent he was.
I paid for my fuel and got back into my car. But a few minutes later, I stopped at a red light and glanced at the car beside me — and there he was again!
I thought: You only live once…
So, I wound down my window and shouted: ‘Can I have your number?’
He called it out and I typed it into my phone.
‘I’m Jordan…’ he told me, just as the lights changed.
After that, we messaged and Jordan asked me out.
He was the outdoors type and suggested a walk to a waterfall for our first date.
It wasn’t my usual thing but it sounded fun, so I said: ‘OK.’
We met up and set off on our stroll, chatting and getting to know each other as we went along.
'I let go to come after you'
After 40 minutes, we’d made it to the top of the waterfall and took in the views.
‘It’s beautiful,’ I said.
Just then, Jordan leant in for a kiss.
This is the perfect first date, I thought.
We snapped some pictures to remember the moment, but as we did, I noticed the sky was getting darker and it looked like a storm was brewing.
‘Let’s get down,’ Jordan said.
But within minutes, the wind had picked up and it started pouring with rain.
‘It’s too slippery,’ I said, looking at the muddy path by the waterfall.
We began heading through the woods but the trail was too steep.
And then it struck me… We were stuck on top of a rock with a 40ft drop below.
Then I had a brainwave.
‘Let’s sit and shuffle our way down the path,’ I suggested.
But as we started to inch our way along, we both began to slide.
I turned on to my stomach and grabbed at the ground, desperate to cling on to anything that could stop me slithering.
But there was nothing — instead I was picking up speed.
I caught a glimpse of Jordan who’d managed to cling on to something, but it was too late for me.
Before I knew it, I was sliding off the cliff edge — face first!
I let out a scream as the ground gave way to air and I felt my body falling.
Then everything went black.
Next thing I knew, someone was shaking me and shouting: ‘Zania? Zania, are you OK?’
I blinked my eyes open and Jordan’s face came into focus.
I realised I was lying in some shallow water at the bottom of the cliff.
I’d plunged all the way from the top — and so had Jordan.
‘After you fell,’ he said, ‘I let go to come after you.’
I couldn’t believe it. He’d risked his life to rescue me.
‘Can you walk?’ he said.
My head felt swollen and blood was seeping from my face as I clung on to Jordan’s arm.
There was no one around and we had no phone signal, so all we could do was keep going.
‘Repeat after me,’ Jordan kept saying, ‘you’re strong, you’re brave and you’ve got this.’
I did as he said, but 10 minutes turned into 20 and then 30, and there was no sign of help.
Finally though, after 40 minutes, we spotted something.
‘Look!’ I gasped.
It was a campervan and sitting outside were a couple.
When they saw us, they hurried over.
‘Let’s try to stop the bleeding,’ the woman said, fetching a paper towel while her husband called the emergency services.
An ambulance arrived and we were taken to hospital where I had 40 stitches in my face.
My lungs were bruised and I had multiple fractures in my spine.
Jordan, who was in another part of the hospital, had fractured both shoulders.
A nurse told me he wanted to visit, but I didn’t want him to see me so badly injured.
Instead my mum sat with me.
‘Thank God you’re alive,’ she said.
Five days on, I was able to go home, and Mum came with me to visit Jordan at his mother’s house.
‘You saved my girl,’ Mum told him, hugging him.
After what we’d been through, Jordan and I became inseparable.
‘Maybe we should have stuck to a drink for a first date,’ I said, teasing him.
But while I started to recover, Jordan seemed worse.
He couldn’t keep food down and was losing weight.
At first, the doctor thought his oesophagus had been crushed by the impact of the fall. But an endoscopy revealed a mass in his stomach.
After further tests, he called me one day while I was at work.
‘It’s stomach cancer,’ he said. ‘Stage three.’
‘No!’ I gasped.
‘They said if it had gone undetected, it would have reached stage four and been untreatable,’ he told me.
I couldn’t believe we’d survived the fall, only to face this.
But Jordan stayed positive through chemotherapy and surgery.
Now it was my turn to tell him: ‘You’re strong, you’re brave, and you’ve got this.’
After the operation, Jordan’s doctors confirmed he was cancer-free. And we came to see that our first- date disaster had been a blessing.
If Jordan hadn’t checked out what he thought were injuries from the fall, doctors might not have found the cancer until it was too late.
Now, we’ve just celebrated a year as a couple.
I still have scars and need work done on my teeth, but our experience has brought us closer and strengthened our faith in God.
I never could have guessed our first date would be a near-death experience, but as we survived that, I reckon we can get through anything!