Our story

“On the 21st of April 2024 we’re running the London Marathon.” - a phrase that still makes our knees buckle and sends our hearts into palpitations.

Our running journeys couldn’t have been more different, but it kept us sane, made us physically stronger, and it brought us closer than we ever thought we could be.

What started with power walks with very little running, slowly progressed into short distance runs. 5km followed by 7km, 7km followed by 10km. As the distances grew longer, the stronger became our bond, and one day we decided why won’t we try to run a Half Marathon. Covid lockdowns kept us apart, but we trained, each in our own neck of the woods, and ran our first Halfs solo on the 27th of February 2021.

Having finished the first Half, we swore off the distance and decided to stick to more palatable 10km, but only a few weeks later we had booked another Half Marathon distance, then another, and another, joking that we will never have the guts, physical strength, and mental capacity to challenge the full distance.

But here we are, 20 Half Marathons between us later, we’ve booked ourselves to run “London Marathon My Way” - to run the distance on the day of the event in our neck of the woods.

The training will be gruelling, but we’re ready to give it all that we have, to push our minds and bodies to get where it needs to be to conquer the distance, so on the 21st of April 2024 we can run the London Marathon “My Way”.

To make our efforts worthwhile, we have decided to support Long Covid SOS – a charity close to our hearts as both of us have family members affected by the aftermath of Covid virus.

Ekaterina.

Covid first became a part of our lives in January 2020. There were no tests to officially confirm it, but all the symptoms were there. I felt awful for several weeks but was lucky to make a quick recovery. My husband suffered with fatigue, loss of appetite and brain fog till early September 2020 and even now, four years later, he still from time to time experiences these symptoms.

In November 2021, despite being double vaccinated, we’ve contacted Covid for the second time and this time our younger son was hit the hardest. When Daniel was a baby, he had eczema and allergy to eggs and dairy products, which he grew out of and from the age of 5, we no longer had any problems. Covid hit him where he was weakest. A week before Daniel has tested positive for Covid, he started developing skin rashes, which started on his neck, slowly progressing onto his face and body. Around Christmas we noted that Daniel’s eczema was getting worse with flareups increasing depending on what he ate – by a way of elimination, we’ve worked out that his egg and dairy food allergies has returned together with allergies for many other foods – soya, nuts, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and many more. All through 2022, we’ve been through different doctors, NHS and Private, trying to explain to them that it’s most likely something more than just ordinary eczema as no usual treatments worked, and his eczema got only worse. It affected his sleep, physical and mental well-being, his school attendance has dropped to below 50%.

Eventually, we were able to get a referral to a private paediatric dermatologist who looked beyond the ordinary eczema. When we finally got to see her, Daniel’s skin was so bad that she was worried, he will require an inpatient treatment in the hospital. She confirmed our suspicion that Covid has caused Daniel’s immune system to go into overdrive with overactive histamines treating everything as a treat, causing various allergic reactions manifesting on his skin. She said she did see similar conditions in people after contracting Covid or having “live” Covid vaccines, but Daniel’s case was by far the worse she has seen.

Thankfully, she was able to work out a treatment plan, which helped to manage Daniel’s condition. Daniel has been on oral steroids, two different antihistamines and immunosuppressants, as well as various creams and ointments to help with skin recovery, for over 6 months. Blocking his immune system has helped his skin to heal enough for him to return back to school, to reunite with his friends and smash those SATS tests top 10 of the class. He’s much happier boy but it’s a still way to go to.

Now, as I update this page (March 2024) Daniel still has occasional flareups but his condition is much better and easier to manage. He’s also being weaned off the immunosuppressants and introduced to immunomodulating medicine, which will hopefully help to adjust his immune system.

I’m sure Daniel is not the only one and there are many people affected by Long Covid in some way or another. I hope that my son’s story will help people to see the importance of Long Covid research. Research and correct diagnostics are paramount to correct treatment, so some time down the line another child or an adult won't need to wait for one and a half year for the correct diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you for supporting Long Covid SOS with me.

Liz.

I’ve had asthma since I was 14 years old. It’s always been managed by inhalers and never caused me any undue stress. Then I had COVID. I was left struggling for breath and with an incessant cough.

I had to have several doctors and hospital appointments, steroids, and antibiotics but nothing seemed to work. Then I had a Bronchoscopy. This was life changing. The course of treatment that led from this had made a complete difference to my quality of life.

Although I continued to run, not fast but at least 5km about twice a week. I still ran with my running buddy most weekends at least 10km and even completed a couple of half marathons too, coughing and hacking as I went!

Now, a year on from my treatment and daily meditation, my asthma is under control. I’m fortunate.

I chose long COVID, not only for my story but also for the affect it has had on family and friends.