Ann looking to brighter future after two years with long Covid

So says Ann Hartley, for whom it has been a very long two years.

Ann says she is almost too scared to believe that, after a huge struggle against long Covid, she thinks she has turned a corner in her battle.

It was as Britain went into lockdown in March 2020 that Ann, from Ellesmere, contracted Covid.

She stayed at home and took paracetamol as people were told to do.

But instead of getting better, she got worse, and her breathing was so bad she and husband Ryan called for an ambulance.

Paramedics managed to stabilise Ann so she could stay at home.

“I was terrified that I would go into hospital and never come out,” she admitted.

Ryan went on to contract the virus as well but, as he recovered, Ann, the then chairman of Shropshire Council, was left completely debilitated.

The couple were keen walkers and thought nothing of a daily walk of anything between three and five miles.

But weeks later Ann found that she was unable to walk a couple of hundred yards before she was completely wiped out. Even a year later she had nights where she woke up, unable to breathe and when a walk of a mile with Ryan and their dog, Mocha, was only possible on good days.

Another year on and she is crossing everything and touching wood in the hope that her health is finally improving.

“I can’t believe that I have been like this for two years,” she said.

“You really do think that you will never get better.

“It is like I have been living in a fog and that the fog is now beginning to lift. I can see thing more brightly and clearly.

“It is like I have been dormant for almost two years and finally I am now coming out of this dormant state. I notice things a lot more. The sun seems to shine more brightly and everything looks so colourful. It is wonderful.

“Christmas was busy and it knocked me for six, but I am now gradually trying to get my fitness back. I can walk a mile or so reasonably easily when I am feeling well and I have started doing pilates which has helped me massively. It has really helped my breathing.”

Ann said Ryan has been incredibly supportive.

“He has been a rock through it all. It hasn’t been easy for him, dealing with me, not knowing how I would be from one day to the next. He has really kept me going.

“And having Mocha our brown Labrador has also been just wonderful. She is always there for me, as a comfort. She knows when I am having a bad day and is happy to sit with me.”

“The community in Ellesmere has been so wonderful and caring, asking how I am and being genuinely concerned and I have talked to so many people within the long Covid community. We all say that it is a real comfort and a tonic to talk to each other and give each other support.

Ann agreed to be part of a long Covid research project and has been for regular check-ups.

“It is so puzzling,” she said.

“There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for why some people are struck down with this lingering illness. There is no real pattern and the cases are so diverse.”

Ann is now hopeful for the future for both herself and the country as it emerges from the latest Covid variant.

“Our grandson is almost a year old now and I am looking forward to being able to see him more often and have the energy to enjoy being with him.

“He was born during lockdown which meant we were not able to see him for a long time and then only during a meet-up outside.

“Now I hope we can get to know him properly.

“I do feel a real positivity although we really do need to stay vigilant.

“I noticed some snowdrops blooming this week in the plantation in Ellesmere, somewhere I could not have dreamt of walking to a while ago. It was a wonderful sign of better things to come - for everyone as well as myself.”