AN athlete who competed in this summer’s Disabled Commonwealth Games in India – while suffering a bout of ‘Delhi Belly’ – is being honoured by his hometown by switching on its Christmas lights.

Weightlifter Daniel Steward, 24, from Arncott, near Bicester, lost 12lb in weight in the four days leading up to his competition in the games after getting food poisoning and an infection.

He had gone out to Delhi three weeks early in order to acclimatise to the food and weather after hearing horror stories about conditions for athletes in the build-up to the 2010 games.

Initially there were no problems, but then the swimmers started to go down with bugs, and within days it had spread to other sportsmen and women.

Mr Steward, who has Cerebral Palsy, a condition which affects messages between the brain and muscles, said at first athletes believed swimming pool water was to blame.

He added: “One evening someone came rushing into my apartment and said don’t eat so and so... but by then it was too late.

“Four or five days before the competition I was in trouble.

“I was ill, I had an infection, and I lost 12lb.

“I managed to persuade the doctor to let me compete if my temperature dropped. It was about 39.5C and it dropped half a degree – which was enough for me.

“I hadn’t gone out there and done all that training to sit on the sideline.”

Mr Steward believes the food, which was served in buffet-style meals, was to blame.

He eventually finished 22nd out of 30 in the contest, but said had the bench press event been split into the usual weight categories he would have come fourth.

He usually weighs about 67kg and lifts 105 to 110kg.

BT worker Mr Steward, who married travel agent Emma, 24, in April this year, said: “It didn’t all go according to plan, but the experience was brilliant.”

Mr Steward started weightlifting after a ‘try-a-sport’ event at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire six years ago. Coaches spotted his potential and began training him.

Mum Carol Steward, a town and district councillor, said: “I’m very proud that he just struggled through and still tried his hardest to achieve the best he could in the circumstances.”

Mr Steward, alongside mayor Richard Mould, will light up the town centre to welcome the festive season on November 18.

Among the entertainment will be school children singing carols on a stage outside the Methodist Church, charity stalls, Father Christmas and children’s fair rides in Sheep Street, starting from 5pm.