Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’ll get worse
Karen, 34, on year of loneliness
frontline emergency. But St Mungo’s chief executive Steve Douglas said: “As the economy and employment falters, the end of the eviction ban approaches, and with no commitment to extend the uplift in Universal Credit there are many more people facing a real threat of losing their homes who could become part of this picture.”
London-based charity The Passage reports increasing numbers of people new to the streets through job loss since last July. CEO Mick Clarke said: “During the first few months of lockdown, we had a glimpse of what could be achieved if everyone works together and there is the political will.
“But the pandemic also highlighted the lack of provision for those with mental health and substance issues.”
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate added: “Covid-19 has ripped open the
cracks left by the gross shortage of decent social homes. Thousands of people are struggling to survive the pandemic without a home thanks to decades of political neglect.
“From the taxi driver sleeping
rough, to the mother fleeing domestic abuse, this pandemic continues to be a never-ending nightmare.”
Government action to prevent evictions resulted in a 41% fall in people losing their homes in the private sector. But there was a 24% rise in sofa surfers – those staying with family and friends – being kicked out due to fears over the virus.
The number of homeless households leapt from 207,600 in 2018 to more than 219,000 at the end of 2019. Crisis research suggests we could have 246,200 families and individuals homeless or in temporary accommodation by 2031.
The Government stressed decisive action had supported rough sleepers and helped keep the vulnerable safe during the pandemic.
It added: “We’re providing an unprecedented package of support, with over £700million this year to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping for good.”
THE past year has been hard on all of us but for Karen Lyons it has been intensely difficult as the double lung transplant recipient had her dreams put on hold yet again due to coronavirus.
One in literally 741,000 million, the 34-year-old suffers from genetic illness pulmonary surfactant metabolism dysfunction type two.
It is so rare she is the “only one in Europe” with it following her sister’s tragic death and needed a lung transplant in January 2018 to survive.
In the five long years beforehand, Karen said she was the one getting odd glances as she wore masks to ward off colds and flus and needed an oxygen tank to breathe.
She added: “It caused fibrosis and scarring of the lungs, which made them really tight and sticky so no oxygen could get through to the cells.”
With a transplant came the hope Karen was getting her life back – but then the pandemic hit.
Holed up at home for the past 12 months, the Co Fermanagh woman said it has been harder than the five years she waited for her new lungs as she has been cut off from family and can count on one hand the number of times she has been outside.
Karen told the Mirror: “It’s been tougher this year than any other year weirdly. It’s been scary and my anxiety
It’s been tougher this year than any other. My anxiety is a lot higher KAREN LYONS CO FERMANAGH YESTERDAY
has been a lot higher because of the fear of anything going wrong.
“Even before Covid I was hearing of friends who were getting the cold or the flu and dying, then on top of all this we’ve got this big scary coronavirus as well.
“It’s been three years since I had the lung transplant. I have been pretty good overall since, there were just a few blips at the beginning with rejection so they had to give me some steroids and change my anti-rejection medication and I have had no issues since, which has been brilliant.
“When I got my transplant, I was just doing as much as I could.
“Then to be told to stay indoors again and shield yourself, it’s been such a struggle.
“I guess when you get your health back, then to be told to stay home, you start to go down that road of thinking you are sick again.
“I have been shielding for a year and there’s a handful of times when I have been out for a walk but even then it was a wee bit dangerous because people wouldn’t move away from the path or distance themselves. I used to get very panicky and anxious.
“People were like, ‘Just stay at home’. It’s just so maddening because my life is as important as yours – I have every right to want my life back and shouldn’t have to stay at home so you can all just do what you want.
“Now it’s just dragged on and on. Not being able to go out and go into shops for fear of being exposed to the virus – that’s been tough to get my head around and work through.”
Even when feeling her worst, Karen said she could still have some sort of a normal life before coronavirus.
She added: “I was sick for five years before the transplant but I was still able to bring my oxygen tank and meet friends for a coffee and go for a gentle walk – even just go for a dinner out somewhere. Family could still come to the house and friends could still come and visit me.
“Those simple things of interaction, whereas now I can’t have any of that.”
Karen, who lives with her husband, dogs and cat outside Enniskillen, told how she wasn’t annoyed that clinically vulnerable people weren’t included in the first vaccination phase but feels their immune systems are probably as weak and they should have been.
She said: “I have friends who had cystic fibrosis, who had a transplant, and their parents got the vaccine before them. It didn’t make sense.
“After the transplant my immune system was zero so when I would go into a shop I’d have to wear a mask.
Everybody was staring at me – which is ironic now. I was having to take all these precautions.
“Even getting a common cold before all this could be really detrimental to my health and my lungs.”
But getting her jab on Monday left Karen “jumping for joy” and she said: “It’s been a boost. There is light at the end of the tunnel [and] we are one step closer to getting normal life back.
“I know I am not protected yet and loads of people still have to get their vaccines but it feels like finally something positive is happening and help is on the way.
“For me and my friends in the transplant community or with chronic illnesses, it’s been such a relief.”