I’VE RUN MARATHONS BUT THEY NEVER LEFT ME THIS WIPED OUT

MITCH BEESLEY, a carpenter from Eastbourne, East Sussex, is aged 30, slim and jogs 12 to 15 miles a week.

Yet none of those factors seemed to count for much when he caught Covid-19 over Christmas. It left him bed-bound for a week, with crushing chest pains, a racing heart, blinding headaches and struggling for breath.

Less than two months later, he is having regular online counselling to cope with the crippling panic attacks and anxiety the virus left him.

‘I’ve run marathons and went to the gym regularly when it was open,’ says Mitch, left, who lives with his partner

Jessica, 24. But nothing prepared me for how ill I felt with Covid.

‘It started with feeling a bit more tired than usual and a few niggling pains in my chest. But it was Christmas and I thought maybe I’d just overdone it a bit.’

As the festive break wore on, Mitch got worse. He lost his sense of smell – a common sign of infection – and a coronavirus test proved positive.

‘Then it just got worse and worse. By New Year’s Eve I was sleeping all day and struggling to even get out of bed as I was so exhausted. My heart was racing – it seemed to be thumping in my chest – and I’ve never coughed so much in my life. I thought about going to A&E but didn’t want to waste doctors’ time so decided to ride it out at home.

‘I usually get up for work at 5am. Now I find it hard to even get out of bed at all as I don’t feel great, physically or mentally.

‘I feel like I’ve been running marathons – when I’ve done hardly anything.

‘And sometimes I get so anxious it makes me feel sick.

‘On paper, I don’t have any of the main risk factors for Covid-19. But this virus has really shaken me up.’