An aspiring footballer who was partially blinded after being viciously attacked by a group of youths outside a school has been picked to carry the Olympic flame.

Jay Beckford, from Streatham, will join one of 116 teams carrying the torch from Stoke Mandeville to the Paralympic Games in London in August.

The trainee football coach, who is now 32, was born with brain damage which left him temporarily blind until the age of three- but then completely lost sight in his left eye after being assaulted outside Dunraven School aged 16.

The dad-of-one ended up on the streets for four years while he struggled to come to terms with his impaired vision.

He said: “Those years of my life were bleak. I just wound up being really down.

“Football was my love and everybody used to say ‘You cannot do it because you cannot see’. When I lost my eyesight I could not play anymore.”

But after meeting a social worker from charity Action for Blind, he was put in touch with the Chelsea Community Foundation, which coaches footballers with disabilities.

He now trains regularly with the team and has achieved his Level 1 coaching badge.

Mr Beckford, who now lives in East Dulwich, said: “They changed my life around. Losing the sight in one eye made my whole life coming crashing down.

“Until I was 20 my life was so terrible I just wanted to forget it. But it’s so great and I have a beautiful girlfriend and son. I never thought this would happen to me – I always thought my life was going to be bleak.

“I can’t thank the club and the charity enough, and now I’ve been chosen to be a torchbearer – I can’t believe it. I am so honoured, and so proud.”

For more information about the Lloyds TSB flame relay visit www.lloydstsb.com/paralympicflame.

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