• Support Wokingham Today
  • Get the print edition
  • Sign up for our daily newsletter
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Wokingham.Today
  • HOME
  • MY AREA
    • All
    • Arborfield
    • Barkham
    • Beech Hill
    • Binfield
    • Bracknell
    • Charvil
    • Crowthorne
    • Earley
    • Emmbrook
    • Finchampstead
    • Grazeley
    • Henley
    • Hurst
    • Lower Earley
    • Norreys
    • Reading
    • Remenham
    • Riseley
    • Shinfield
    • Sindlesham
    • Sonning
    • Spencers Wood
    • Swallowfield
    • Three Mile Cross
    • Twyford
    • Wargrave
    • Winnersh
    • Wokingham
    • Wokingham Without
    • Woodley
    • Woosehill
    • Yateley
    Brecon Road Food and Wine, Woodley Picture: Google Maps

    Woodley store has licence revoked

    Reading Today; 18th March 2023;  Thames Water HQ - Extinction Rebellion protest

    Thames Water issued £123M Ofwat fine–the biggest ever–over environmental breaches

    A banking hub in Yorkshire. Pic: Murray Scott/Link.

    Banking hub plans for village

    The masterplan for the development in Atborfield. Pic: Dandara.

    Decision made on plans for 111 new homes in Arborfield

    Retrospective plans have been refused. Pic: WBC.

    Vending machine plans refused

    Sam Green and Megan Bartlett, who both took part in the Wokingham half marathon earlier this year. Pic: Harry McBain.

    Sam and Megan take Sumas supporters’ awards

    Mind in Berkshire, which provides support, advice, and signposting for mental health services in Berkshire, was commissioned to examine Black people's access to necessary services, as part of a wider drive from the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to address inequalities in local services. Picture: PixaBay

    Mind in Berkshire report finds serious deficits in mental health provisions for Black people

    Wokingham borough council. Pic: WBC.

    Have your say on council spending

    Wokingham Children?s Book Festival.

    Save the date for children’s book festival

  • SPORT
    • All
    • Binfield FC
    • Reading FC
    Sam Green and Megan Bartlett, who both took part in the Wokingham half marathon earlier this year. Pic: Harry McBain.

    Sam and Megan take Sumas supporters’ awards

    Reading FC

    Former Reading FC player announces shock international retirement

    Reading FC - Charlie Savage and Harvey Knibbs Picture: Luke Adams

    Reading FC star player linked with transfer to Wrexham

    Sam Hutchinson Picture: Luke Adams

    Former Reading FC reflects on heart attack suffered during match

    FC Bracknell

    FC Bracknell U10 Lions score dramatic winner to win the cup for second season in a row

    Ruben Selles

    Former Reading FC manager Ruben Selles linked with League One job

    Reading FC Picture: Luke Adams

    Reading fans – you can finally dare to dream again

    BAPCO beat Burghfield to take the title. Pic: Andrew Batt

    Four in a row for BAPCO

    Rob Couhig, Joe Jacobson

    Rob Couhig reveals new Reading FC CEO following takeover

  • READING FC
  • COMMUNITY
    A banking hub in Yorkshire. Pic: Murray Scott/Link.

    Banking hub plans for village

    Retrospective plans have been refused. Pic: WBC.

    Vending machine plans refused

    Sam Green and Megan Bartlett, who both took part in the Wokingham half marathon earlier this year. Pic: Harry McBain.

    Sam and Megan take Sumas supporters’ awards

    Wokingham borough council. Pic: WBC.

    Have your say on council spending

    Wokingham Children?s Book Festival.

    Save the date for children’s book festival

    The Salvation Army

    The Salvation Army in Reading Lower Earley celebrates community diversity with International Day

    Very Beautiful South's nine-piece band will play sing-along classics: Perfect 10, Rotterdam, A Little Time and Don?t Marry Her. Picture courtesy of Wokingham Music Club

    Beautiful South tribute band to play in Wokingham

    Two June volunteer fairs will give people an opportunity to connect with a charity and discover the joy of volunteering. Picture: courtesty of ABC to Read

    June is the time to highlight the joys of volunteering

    Woodley & Earley Lions Club has recently welcomed their newest joiner. Picture: Woodley & Earley Lions Club

    Lions club welcomes eighth new member in 12 months

  • LIFESTYLE
    • All
    • Food
    • Health
    • Obituaries
    • People
    A banking hub in Yorkshire. Pic: Murray Scott/Link.

    Banking hub plans for village

    Retrospective plans have been refused. Pic: WBC.

    Vending machine plans refused

    Mind in Berkshire, which provides support, advice, and signposting for mental health services in Berkshire, was commissioned to examine Black people's access to necessary services, as part of a wider drive from the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to address inequalities in local services. Picture: PixaBay

    Mind in Berkshire report finds serious deficits in mental health provisions for Black people

    AB Walker

    VAUGHAN, David Raymond

    The Hope & Anchor. Pic: Rightmove.

    Historic town pub listed for sale

    Woodley Repair Cafe operates on the first Sunday of the month, at Christ Church, Crockhamwell Road, between 2pm and 4pm. Picture: Emma Merchant

    Get things fixed in Woodley

    Photography by: Summers Photography. Flowers by: Fletchers Flowers. Set up by: Crystal Hire.

    Get married and win a wedding at Dinton

    The Forest Shelter construction at Dinton Pastures.

    Forest of Imagination set for this weekend

    Margaret Drinkwater and Julia Isaacs have both donated blood 100 times, and encourage others to join them. Picture: Margaret Drinkwater

    Super donors Julia and Margaret encourage more people to give blood

  • WHAT’S ON
    • All
    • Arts
    • Entertainment

    REVIEW: “Three Hens In A Boat” at The Watermill Theatre

    Siren RG1

    Siren RG1 to mark first anniversary with weekender celebration

    Wellington Farm Shop

    Wellington Farm Shop celebrates its 20th anniversary

    Two concerts in one day from Reading's APO. Picture: Pexels via Pixabay

    An orchestral event in Wokingham promises evening of drama and contrast

    Eva Wong Nava will be at Trinity Hall Church on Monday from 4pm until 5pm. Picture: Eva Wong Nava

    Young writers can meet children’s author Eva Wong Nava

    Crafters can join a project  to decorate Twyford village centre with bunting Picture: Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

    Get out the bunting for VE Day at Wokingham’s May Fayre

    Crowthorne Symphony Orchestra's performance of American music promises to be a fun and high energy evening. Picture: CSO

    Discounted tickets available for summer concert in Wokingham

    The Wokingham Lions Club has announced its new season of  #WOKY Comedy Nights at Wokingham Theatre, will begin on Friday, October 4. Picture: Wokingham Lions Club

    Enjoy the last of this season’s #Woky Comedy Night

    A concert at Wokingham Baptist Church will celebrate Ukrainian culture and support charity. Picture: Olena Romanovska

    Wokingham to host a concert of Ukrainian music and dancing

  • JOBS
  • ADVERTISE
  • CONTACT
No Result
View All Result
Wokingham.Today
No Result
View All Result
Home Lifestyle Health

Long Covid: Five years later, we reflect

by Guest contributor
March 16, 2025
in Health, Opinion
Covid Picture: Pixabay

Covid Picture: Pixabay

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By Will Richmond-Coggan, Partner and National Head of Data Breach Litigation, at Freeths

Saturday, March 15 is International Long Covid Awareness Day, marking five years since many countries around the world went into lockdown in response to the proliferating threat of Covid-19.

While there will be plenty of people feel who don’t feel like marking such an anniversary, for many Covid is not something they can forget or move on from, even if they wanted to.

With an increasing number of people facing an ongoing, daily battle with Long Covid part of their reality, the illness remains an ever-present burden. This is why this International Long Covid Awareness Day, I’m joining the millions across the world hoping to shine a light on this debilitating condition. As a husband and a carer to someone who is badly afflicted by Long Covid, who I see bravely battling against it on a daily basis, I am committed to raising awareness of what Long Covid is, and the effect it has on people up and down the country: the sufferers; and their carers, families, friends and colleagues.

My wife and I both caught Covid in 2020. For reasons that we still don’t fully understand, I recovered, but she never did. Her health was impaired to a greater or lesser extent from that point on, but worsened significantly after she was unfortunate enough also to contract the Omicron variant of Covid later on.

The effect of this on our family has been, and likely will continue to be dramatic. We’ve been fighting to get clarity about what might be afflicting her, eliminating a number of other possible malign diagnoses. This was before our GP would even entertain the possibility of Long Covid being the issue. Even when, belatedly, that diagnosis was made, we have had to contend with a lack of information about the condition, how it might afflict her, and what prospects (if any) there were for treatment or recovery. Most of what we have learned has been discovered through our own review of published research. My wife has been trying to wrap her head around those impenetrable medical publications, while also contending with her debilitating symptoms.

Related posts

Woodley store has licence revoked

Thames Water issued £123M Ofwat fine–the biggest ever–over environmental breaches

Long Covid, or as it’s sometimes known, Post-Covid Syndrome, is a condition in which the effects of Covid-19 infection last for months, or in some cases years, after someone firsts falls ill. At its worst, it is increasingly starting to look as if some of the effects may be permanent and irreversible.

The effects can take a variety of forms but, at its root, the illness looks like an auto-immune condition – where the body behaves as if it is still under continuing, constant, attack from Covid-19. Symptoms vary between individuals. Some display continuing breathing difficulties, some have altered brain chemistry, making them more vulnerable to depression or PTSD. Others, similar to my wife, have constant nerve pain throughout their body, or short-term memory loss, mobility issues or exhaustion. Many have combinations of a number of these symptoms, among many others (research has identified as many as 200 distinct symptoms, affecting almost every organ and system of the body).

The physical aspects, though, only make up part of the problem. Both for political reasons and simply because it has been overtaken by other global events, there has been efforts to put Covid firmly in the past, with many people trying to forget it ever happened. However, this leaves those who are still suffering from Long Covid feeling like they too have been left behind. Anyone who has a disability, or cares for someone with one, will know that able friends and family members can sometimes find it uncomfortable to address what is wrong. Or sometimes, perhaps they just don’t know what to say, or fear saying the wrong thing. If that is true for conditions that are well understood and publicly recognised, imagine how much harder it must be when it is a condition which is poorly understood and, indeed, dismissed as imaginary in certain quarters.

Long Covid is far from imaginary. Caring for someone who lives with it every hour of every day has cemented this for our family. But our experience is far from unique. Statistics suggest that around 6% of all people who were infected with Covid-19 have gone on to suffer from Long Covid. This translates to over 400 million globally! An unimaginable figure for a ‘forgotten’ disease.

It can be difficult to know what to do in the face of numbers like this, in the context of an illness which is still very poorly understood, and where there may be no hope of a cure being found. That’s why, five years since our lives changed forever, I’m hoping to raise awareness in the hope that some see that perhaps the additional numbers of long term ill in the workforce may well be largely accounted for by the effects of Long Covid – they aren’t just ‘work-shy’. Not only this, but to understand that it isn’t just the patient that suffers, but that families’ lives have been disrupted and changed indefinitely.

The Long Covid Support charity has been a valuable resource to families like ours, but any form of support can be shown to those around you with this diagnosis. A kind word, or something simple such as a meaningful conversation, can, and likely will, mean the world. I encourage everyone reading this, if you know someone who is battling with this difficult condition, to please reach out to them. Let them know that you are thinking of them, and ask them to talk to you about their experience. Be patient but persistent – often victims of Long Covid suffer from a combination of severe exhaustion and social anxiety, which might make them reluctant to open up about their condition, or unable to face the effort involved in talking about it. But I promise you that they will appreciate the effort, and you may be providing them with vital reassurance that the world has not moved on and forgotten them. If you can do that – this Long Covid Awareness Day, and in the weeks and months ahead – you could well be making an important difference to those sufferers’ lives.

Will Richmond-Coggan, Partner and National Head of Data Breach Litigation, at Freeths

Long Covid Support is a charity registered in England and Wales – Long Covid Support

Keep up to date by signing up for our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people who have requested it.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Previous Post

‘What a legend’: Reading FC player wins praise after joining fans in Club 1871

Next Post

FROM THE CHAMBER: Understanding what Wokingham Borough Council does for residents

FOLLOW US

POPULAR THIS WEEK

Toastmasters helps people to enjoy public speaking. The group meets at The Bradbury Centre, Peach Place on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Picture: Matt Botsford via Unsplash

Practise public speaking with Toastmasters

May 23, 2025
Very Beautiful South's nine-piece band will play sing-along classics: Perfect 10, Rotterdam, A Little Time and Don?t Marry Her. Picture courtesy of Wokingham Music Club

Beautiful South tribute band to play in Wokingham

May 25, 2025
Sainsbury's Picture: Wikimedia Commons

Bracknell & Wokingham planning: More progress on new Sainsbury’s supermarket

May 27, 2025
The Julia Set Picture: Andrew Merritt

RaW Sounds Today: Featuring The Julia Set, Y, Honeyglaze and The Bluepers

May 25, 2025
McDonald's Picture: Pixabay

McDonald’s ‘actively reviewing’ for third Bracknell site

May 25, 2025
Andrew Gaurd Picture: Thames Valley Police

Man wanted in connection with three burglaries in Wokingham and Winnersh

May 27, 2025

ABOUT US

Wokingham Today is dedicated to providing news online across the whole of the Borough of Wokingham. It is a Social Enterprise, existing to support the various communities in Wokingham Borough.

Wokingham.Today is a Social Enterprise and aims to ensure that everyone within the Borough has free access to independent and up-to-date news. However, providing this service is not without costs. If you are able to, please make a contribution to support our work.

CONTACT US

[email protected]

Keep up to date with our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people that have subscribed

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

  • Support Us
  • Book Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Get the Print Edition
  • Sign up for our daily newsletter

The Wokingham Paper Ltd publications are regulated by IPSO – the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
If you have a complaint about a  The Wokingham Paper Ltd  publication in print or online, you should, in the first instance, contact the publication concerned, email: [email protected], or telephone: 0118 327 2662. If it is not resolved to your satisfaction, you should contact IPSO by telephone: 0300 123 2220, or visit its website: www.ipso.co.uk. Members of the public are welcome to contact IPSO at any time if they are not sure how to proceed, or need advice on how to frame a complaint.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • MY AREA
    • Arborfield
    • Barkham
    • Beech Hill
    • Binfield
    • Bracknell
    • Charvil
    • Crowthorne
    • Earley
    • Emmbrook
    • Finchampstead
    • Grazeley
    • Henley
    • Hurst
    • Lower Earley
    • Norreys
    • Reading
    • Remenham
  • COMMUNITY
  • LIFESTYLE
  • SPORT
  • READING FC
  • OBITUARIES
  • WHAT’S ON
  • JOBS
  • PHOTOS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • CONTACT US
  • WHERE TO GET THE PRINT EDITION
  • SUPPORT US

© 2022 - The Wokingham Paper Ltd - All Right Reserved.