Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Chloe’s ‘let loose’ after a whole year of shielding
AYOUNG woman has finally been reunited with her parents and enjoyed a cup of tea and flapjacks after spending the whole year of lockdown shielding with her grandparents during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chloe Ball-Hopkins, 24, who has muscular dystrophy, spent all but five weeks of the last 12 months at her home.
She certainly made the most of her time at home and finished a media productions degree and headed up communications for a disability sports channel.
The only contact she had outside her “bubble” for 12 months was with medics and patients during hospital visits.
But she enjoyed eating flapjacks and drinking tea with her parents in the garden before meeting up with friends for the first time since March last year.
Chloe, who lives in an annex at her grandparents’ home in Kingswood, near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, said: “It’s been a long old year.
“The extent of my social life this year has been the person I’ve chatted to in hospital next to me.
“As clichéd as it sounds, it’s like Christmas Eve and I’m a child getting ready for Christmas Day. It’s
been a long time coming and at this point it’s just going to be nice to get out and enjoy what I can do in a safe way.
“I know the shielders are a small amount, but if you break down each individual, at this point, we are the safest people to go out.
“We won’t put other people at risk. We’re the safest people to let loose.”
Chloe has struggled at times seeing other people break the rules while she is stuck at home.
“It’s not been easy. Social media has been a real conflict at times,” she said.
“At times I’ve seen people doing things. To see it so clearly when I’m not really allowed to leave home – it was really tough.
“On one hand it kept me going with work etc, but on the other side I see things that make me want to shield again.”
Chloe’s grandfather George Ball says he will miss her not being around.
He said: “It’s going to be really strange not having her buzzing around the house. I won’t get my nice cups of coffee made, because she’s been absolutely lovely looking after her grandparents. It’s a twoedge sword, isn’t it?”
Nearly four million people in England and Wales who are clinically vulnerable due to Covid no longer have to shield.
Chloe went to see her mother in her garden to eat flapjacks and drink tea before safely catching up with friends that she is now more used to
There were times when... I would have climbed the walls if I physically could have CHLOE BALL-HOPKINS
seeing on screen than in person.
When asked how she has remained so positive, Chloe told ITV: “There were times when cabin fever was exactly how I explained it.
“I would have climbed the walls if I physically could have. Covid was something that would and could have killed me.
“It wasn’t that hard when I thought about it that way, considering the people who are putting their life on the line because they had to because that was their job. My part was staying at home, in comparison that’s not a hard thing to do.”