Western Daily Press (Saturday)
SUFFERING WITH COVID 10 MONTHS ON
AWOMAN who believes she is the UK’s longest Covid-19 sufferer has told of her frightening symptoms – ten months after catching the virus.
Nic Kimberley, 53, says she was struck down with the disease on Christmas Day after flying to the Caribbean for a winter holiday.
She believes she caught it a few days earlier while mingling with Chinese passengers who landed at Gatwick Airport from Wuhan – the city where the pandemic originated.
Nic spent the entire week of her holiday in bed with a fever, lack of taste and smell, and a cough – all classic symptoms of coronavirus.
When she returned to her home in Cheltenham, her symptoms persisted and she went to her GP, who was baffled by her illness and suggested it could be swine flu.
It was confirmed that she had caught Covid-19 when she was finally tested in June.
Scientists said the earliest known person to contract coronavirus in the UK was a 75-year-old woman from Nottinghamshire who tested positive on February 21 – two months after Nic fell ill.
Nic, a former BBC radio journalist who now works as a self-employed financial adviser, believes she is the longest Covid-19 sufferer in the UK.
Since returning from holiday, she has struggled to keep working and was in and out of hospital for months before it was confirmed she had caught Covid-19.
“Then no one believed me,” she said. “People said they thought it was swine flu. I didn’t get my official confirmation it was Covid until June.
“I have been in and out of hospital ever since.
“It was found my various organs and glands had not been working properly for quite a while.
“I lose my eyesight for a few hours here and there, then it comes back blurry.
“It is a flaring virus; it sits and hides inside the body before coming out.
“It is the pattern for long Covid people like myself that they are seeing.
“I have never lost the crippling arthritic and joint pain. I have never lost the chest pain. I find it difficult to breathe.
“The longest period I’ve had is seven days when I start to feel almost back to normal.
“But the virus, it teases you – the next day you can’t stand up, and your ears have been bleeding.
“It is the most horrendous disease, it takes everything you have away from you.
“You are scared to go to sleep as you are worried you won’t wake up in the morning. I have no idea if I will ever be fully better.”
As well as the physical toll, Nic said the strain of battling the disease had also had a huge impact on her mental health. She is now using her experience to warn young people to take the virus more seriously.
She added: “I used to be a BBC radio journalist, I used to be eloquent and now my short-term memory is gone.
“I have gained strength from the support groups that had started to pop up, including the Long Covid Support Group. It is the largest group, it has snowballed and we are supporting each other.”
Nic, who has no children and lives on her own, had blood tests in February that showed “abnormal results”.
Because doctors were unaware of Covid-19 at that time they did not know what the virus was until it was too late.
It was only confirmed in June when she had a plasma test after taking part in the Oxford University trials.
She said: “The doctors tested me for everything in February – Zika, malaria and sars.
“It threw up some very abnormal results, but they didn’t know at the time that it was coronavirus.
“In June, I had a plasma test which confirmed what I already knew. I was one of the earliest people in this country to catch the virus.
“I want people to know just how awful this disease is.
“I am not usually able to wake up in the day at all and I rely heavily on friends and neighbours to provide me with food.
“People are stupid if they don’t understand how serious this disease is.”