My friend Chris Jordan, who has died of Covid complications aged 63, was a nurse, addiction therapist and committed environmental activist. He was a Green party parliamentary candidate for Torridge and West Devon in two general elections, and a co-opted town councillor in North Tawton.
Born in Dartford, Kent, to Marjorie (nee Port), a librarian, and Peter Jordan, a geologist, he attended Dulwich College and then studied environmental science at Cardiff University.
Drawn to the caring professions, in 1979 he was about to start re-training in general and mental health nursing at Hereford general hospital when he was involved in a motorcycle accident that put him in a coma for several weeks and in hospital for months.
Picking up the threads again, he completed his nurse training in the early 1980s and worked at Lewisham hospital. He later undertook specialist training in substance misuse and addiction, and worked with street drinkers and homeless people in London.
In 2002, he met Sarah Jane Cross while they were both working in the community drug and alcohol team at Richmond community hospital. They married in 2009. By this time, Chris was managing a Salvation Army opiate “detox and rehab” project for Bangladeshi men in London’s East End.
Chris and Sarah moved to Devon in 2012 and he took on various roles in local addiction services. In Devon, he became increasingly involved in local environmental causes and, inspired by Sarah, he became a practitioner of Kundalini yoga.
In 2013 Chris was diagnosed with advanced follicular lymphoma and the same year he had a stroke. He was doggedly strong and he recovered, and went on to stand for the Green party in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, increasing his share of the vote the second time. He had recently been co-opted on to North Tawton town council for the Green party.
Chris was compassionate, calm and kind. Through his activism and his work he influenced many people. Chris believed that healing the Earth could start with how people treat each other, and put this into action in his work and outside it.
Chris was still working as a visiting carer and at a residential unit for brain and head injuries in Plymouth, but had been winding down his nursing career in favour of green activism. He was a trustee and active member of the North Tawton Environmental Trust and planted hundreds of trees. He campaigned against badger culling. In April 2020 he was one of the first people to arrive with his own tree on Waterloo Bridge for an Extinction Rebellion occupation.
He is survived by Sarah.
