Western Morning News

Covid terror for Daley and husband

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TOM DALEY has said he was worried he and his husband would not be able to look after their son after they tested positive for coronaviru­s earlier this year.

The Olympic diving champion, who won gold in the ten metres platform synchro event with Matty Lee in Tokyo this year, feared he was going to die after he spent ten hours in hospital in January, after contractin­g the deadly virus.

Daley kept the incident secret from his rivals, only revealing his ordeal in a new book Coming Up For Air: What I Learned From Sport currently being serialised in The Times.

The 27-year-old from Plymouth, who has a son with Hollywood screenwrit­er husband Dustin Lance Black, reflected on the episode – including asking Lance whether he knew what to do if he “stopped breathing” during the night.

“My lungs felt pressurise­d, as if they had sacks of rice around them,” Daley said. “I needed to get to that test centre and find out. I walked there very, very slowly, diligently avoiding everyone I could.

“When I returned home, I felt like I’d been run over by a steamrolle­r. Within eight hours, I received the message that I was positive.

“Lance then started feeling sick. He was terrified of Covid, due to suffering with his lungs in the past.

“We were really worried about what would happen if we were both ill and couldn’t look after Robbie. I started to feel better for a few days, but then my cough got worse again.

“My head felt like I had a vice tightening around it and my oxygen levels were dropping.”

Diving phenomenon Daley called 111 and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. He added: “I understood how quickly things could potentiall­y go downhill. I had flashes of fear about whether I would be put on a ventilator, and my time being up. I was really terrified.

“They did blood tests and a chest X-ray. There were loads of blotches on my lungs. I was in hospital for about ten hours, and they gave me some oxygen to boost the levels. Once they stabilised, they sent me home.

“Three days after my trip to hospital, I started to make progress. As each day went by, I felt much better. The overwhelmi­ng feeling was a sense of relief that it was finally over.”

 ?? ?? > Tom Daley fell ill with Covid-19 shortly before the Olympics
> Tom Daley fell ill with Covid-19 shortly before the Olympics

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