Four years after the UK went into lockdown due to the global COVID 19 pandemic, BBC ALBA explores the long-lasting impact of the virus experienced by people across Scotland in a brand new Trusadh documentary, Fo Sgàil Covid/Covid’s Long Shadow.
The Office of National Statistics estimated that there are around two million people in Scotland and England suffering with ‘long Covid’. For those who are still battling with the after-effects of the disease, it makes working and undertaking everyday tasks challenging.
Broadcaster Cathy Macdonald travels around Scotland to meet people living with the lasting effects of Covid to learn about the different ways in which the disease has affected them and how they have been managing their recovery whilst living in Covid’s long shadow.
David MacLennan from Gress on the Isle of Lewis is amongst those who Cathy talks to during the documentary, produced by MacTV. David has spent most of his working life in nature conservation and loves the outdoors.
The impact the disease has had on him has been incredibly challenging.
He said: “I became ill about a year into the pandemic. Like everyone else, I isolated for 10 days, but after the 10 days were up, I was not fine.”
David was admitted to Western Isles Hospital, before being airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and admitted to the High Dependency Unit. David was eventually discharged but it took him nearly four months to begin to show signs of recovery.
He continues: “For a man who has never been in hospital in his life, for that to happen so quickly was an absolute shock to the system.
“I remember everything I experienced, from the headaches and the high temperatures to the fatigue; I couldn’t walk 10 yards and I couldn’t breathe. Thankfully, the treatment I received in the High Dependency Unit worked, and the staff in Raigmore were fantastic; I owe them my life.
“I struggled to walk around the house when I got home. It took me four months before I could even think about starting back at work. I remember coming to Tràigh Mhòr beach with a colleague who I hadn’t seen for some time to just get out of the house. It was such a pleasure to be able to walk along the sand, something that was so precious to me before and I thought was being taken away from me by Covid.”
When asked about his health now, David says: “I am about 90% of who I was before Covid. I am back climbing hills and catching salmon.
“I feel privileged to do these things. At my work I am able to go out into the countryside and meet people, which I couldn’t do when I was ill.
“There is still a bit to go, but I am working on it.”
Learn more about the real lives and stories of those affected by long Covid in Fo Sgail Covid / Covid’s Long Shadow, premiering on BBC ALBA and BBC iPlayer on Monday 19 August at 9pm (in Gaelic with English subtitles).
Watch live or on demand: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00226wp