2 YEARS ON - The virus is still RUINING OUR LIVES

On the second anniversary of the first lockdown, 1.5 million people in the UK are suffering from long COVID. Woman investigates

- ASHLEIGH PAGE

As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, a new normal faces us all and, for many, it’s a very different landscape.

And for some, the virus is far from over. Despite it being months, and in some cases years, since they first tested positive, more than a million people in the UK are now living with long COVID.

Plagued with fatigue, breathlessness, tightness in the chest, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, fever, cough, headaches and, in some cases, depression and anxiety, sufferers might no longer be testing positive for COVID-19 but are still feeling the devastating effects.

Long COVID was finally recognised by the British Medical Association as an occupational disease in September 2021. Woman speaks to two women who caught COVID-19 early in the pandemic, yet whose lives are still being impacted two years later.

‘I NEED A WHEELCHAIR WHEN I LEAVE THE HOUSE’

Lucy O’Keeffe, 32, lives in north London with her Mum Maggie, 62.

Before I caught COVID-19, I was a sociable, busy Londoner who worked for myself as a British Sign Language interpreter. I was often rushing from job to job around the city, before meeting up with friends for dinner.

But two years later, I’ve had to move back in with my mum Maggie and give up work. I can’t leave the house on my own, and when I do go out, I rely on a walking stick or, for longer distances, an electric wheelchair.

It was in March 2020 when I started to feel unwell. I’d been out the night before so I put it down to a hangover. But sitting at my mum’s house, waiting for a Sunday roast, I began coughing. I’d lived with asthma for most of my life and had it under control, but whenever I caught a cold I was conscious of it travelling to my lungs.