SPORTS fans love a good comeback story and there will be few better than when Jimmer Courtney pulls on a Swindon Rugby Club shirt again later this year.

Just over a year ago, the tenacious scrum-half was hospitalised with a condition that threatened his life, left him barely able to move and sent his body weight plummeting by four stones.

Back then, lying on a ventilator in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, he could only have dreamed of pulling on his boots and running out for the Greenbridge Road club again.

Barely 12 months on, Courtney, 29 this year, will undergo pre-season training this summer with a view to resuming his playing career.

"If I'm not quite ready for the start of the season in September then so be it,'' he said.

"But I'm going to play again. I'm about 90 per cent recovered and half a stone off what I used to be (11 and a half) and that is just strength really.''

A regular in Swindon's first XV, Courtney was struck down by Guillain-Barr syndrome a rare post-viral disease of the nervous system one weekend last April.

Having just had glandular fever, he remembered: "I played rugby on the Saturday but I was starting to wonder why I looked the same colour as Bart Simpson!

"I just thought I felt a bit groggy. We'd just reached the county cup final and I'd had a few drinks. If you are fit, you don't feel illness much.

"The first I got to know about it was when my left side went numb. I thought it could be a stroke, but that night I knew something wasn't right.

"I went into hospital and then it started moving into my right side as well.'' He added:

"What happens (with Guillain-Barr syndrome) is your immune system doesn't stop working.

"It carries on and starts attacking your nervous system.

"The flu can start it off, or a cold and sometimes it can occur after you have had injections. Your immune system is fighting.''

A three-and-a-half week spell in intensive care in Oxford followed, including spells on a ventilator, before he was moved nearer his Liden-based family at the GWH, where he spent the next four months.

He added: "I've certainly had my money's worth from the NHS!

"But I can't say enough about everybody down at the GWH, they were brilliant.''

Then came rehabilitation a long and tortuous process which continues to this day.

"I actually took my first steps again at my house, from sofa to sofa,'' he added. "But the first time I tried to climb the stairs I had to lie down for about half an hour!

"It has almost been like a little project for myself to get fit again.

"The right-hand side of my face is still paralysed, but that will come back gradually. I never got down about it. There were people in the hospital with cancer and things like that, much worse situations. I knew I was going to get better.''

Meeting fellow Guillain-Barr sufferers former Liverpool footballer Markus Babbel has also been a victim was a help.

Courtney said: "I met a young lad from Oxford, Jamie Brooks, who was only 17 when it happened.

"He's a great lad who helped me through a lot and he's now back playing first team football with Oxford United. "When I couldn't move a muscle and could only blink, he came in and said 'look at me.' "He was the picture of health and that gave me a big lift.

"I was able to do the same when someone else was in the Swindon hospital I went up in a wheelchair and

got out of it to show him.

"They've got my number at the GWH so if anyone else ever goes in with the same problem I can go along.''

Of course with an illness so serious, Courtney's whole life went on hold, including his own loft conversions business.

But his club stepped in, Swindon RFC organising a series of fundraising events that helped pay for his rehab.

Signed rugby balls, shirts including that of England World Cup winner Josh Lewsey and other prizes were all auctioned off to raise cash, Courtney also receiving get well messages from the likes of England rugby legend Dean Richards.

"The club raised money and visited me and have been absolutely brilliant,'' he added.

"I am so thankful for everybody that has helped me in the last year and all the work they have done.

"Playing again now is a big thing for me, to give back something to the club after everything they have given me.''

And 2004 won't always be in his memory for bad reasons.

"I've a strong family and my fiancee Kelly we got engaged last year,'' he added.

"A few months after I had come out of hospital we went to Venice. I got down on one knee in a gondola.

"So in some respects, last year was my worst, but also my best-ever year."