More than 100,000 Britons under 25 have endured months of debilitating symptoms, while doctors struggle to help and others fail to take them seriously. Four young people describe what it’s like
It took Niamh 20 minutes to wash her face – and she cried the whole time. That was in December 2020 when the 19-year-old first-year student at the University of Leeds had been living with long Covid for two months. “I didn’t have the energy to move my arms,” she says. She remembers sitting on the toilet, trying to muster the strength to stand up and run the tap. It took all her energy just to switch on the water. “It sounds daft, but I cried,” she says. “I was like, what is happening to me?”
Niamh had led a physically active life until then. She went to the gym regularly and had swum competitively at school. But after catching Covid in freshers’ week, she became a shell of her former self. She would wake up in the morning and feel overwhelmed by a tiredness that felt as if it was deep in her bones. “I have never felt fatigue like it,” she says. “It was as if I’d been hit by a train or run a marathon.” Gentle activities, such as taking a walk with friends, would leave her gasping for breath. She couldn’t smell or taste anything. She had chest pains and palpitations. Mostly, she lay in bed, scrolling through social media and trying to ignore the thought that she was missing out on the student experience she had longed for.
