I'm still very much in the throes of Long Covid after contracting Covid-19 in March 2022. As well as the fatigue which needs to be very carefully managed yet still often catches me out by completely flooring me, brain fog (confusion and memory loss) is debilitating - many people in my Facebook support group liken it to dementia. The best demonstrations of it being me putting an electric kettle on a hob and not spotting anything wrong with that until I smelled burning plastic (!) and struggling to tell the doctor my date of birth after doing some ‘life admin’ for just 4 hours. And there is very little help – the NHS Long Covid Clinic try their best, but we don’t know enough, and we’re not doing enough, to help people such as me; whose lives have been totally desecrated by this - two huge parts of me have been ripped away in exercise and my career, and the financial strain of having no income (again!) is immense, which obviously also defines what I’m able (or not!) to do during my recovery. Having already had a period of long-term unemployment after my IBS reared up, I’m not ashamed to admit that saying goodbye to my career due to ill health for the second time in less than 5 years had me hit rock bottom. Only this time there is no end for the abyss in sight, in that it’s totally unknown how long I’ll be stuck with my Long Covid symptoms.

So, in a break from a 14-year tradition, I’m asking for support for a different charity as I undertake the Great North Run (/Walk!) for the 15th consecutive year (there are at least some things sacred to me that I’m able to cling on to despite LC!) and this year, I (somewhat accidentally) signed up to do my first Tough Mudder the day before the run! At the time I had no idea that I would still be struggling so much with LC (in fact when the run was announced as the day after my TM, I was excited to have such a physically hardcore weekend to smash with my regained fitness!) but here we are - I’m determined to get round them both somehow. I would very much appreciate donations towards the charity Long Covid Support, which will go towards support, advocacy, research and education. The charity was set up a few years ago by volunteers suffering from Long Covid and is still run purely by volunteers with Long Covid receiving no outside funding; this coupled with fundraising being a relatively new branch of activity for the charity means that your money really would make such a difference.

Many thanks in advance to those who can support, it really means a lot to me.