This happened to my husband some years ago, judgement went against him because he failed to attend court. He had health issues and we had submitted our response by email and informed the court he couldn't travel (we live on the Wirral, case heard in London).
Long story very short, the judgement was set aside on the grounds that there was more to the case than was originally told to the judge. We did get a solicitor involved for this part (I did everything else, tough) My husband managed to travel down for the "retrial" and he won the case, even the appeal of the other party was turned down.