‘SOME DAYS I CAN’T MANAGE A SHOWER’

Amy Durant, 31, London

On March 14, I first began experiencing symptoms, and I haven’t had my life back since then. It was a fairly textbook case. Fever, body aches, a few days later a cough, then a couple of days feeling better before the onset of some pretty scary breathing problems, which at one point got so bad the paramedics had to be called out to look at me.

After a couple of weeks I was back on my feet and started going through the motions of normal life again. But unlike before, where I went for regular runs, saw friends and thrived from the buzz of running my own company, I found myself

with very little energy. My chest ached and my body still felt all wrong.

By May, I crashed completely. Since then, I’ll have a couple of good days where I can manage doing emails and going for a walk with a friend, and then it’s back to square one and my chest hurts, my breathing is off and I can’t get out of bed.

I’m an editor, and I haven’t been able to read properly for months, which is devastating. A CAT scan has revealed some damage in my lungs. Some airways have narrowed from inflammation so I’ve been put on a daily inhaler.

Some days I can’t manage a shower. Occasionally I feel hopeful, but each time I crash back down it’s harder to take.