Help Me Continue The Fight For LongCovid Justice

Hi my name is Nic I live alone with my two little dogs who are my world and who in many ways have saved my life particularly as without any smell or taste still they have often started barking when small cooking fires have broken out in my house.

On Christmas Day 2019 I became quite ill but I never knew then that it was the last day that I was ever going to taste a Christmas lunch and be able to dance to live music. For over three years now I have been seriously ill as a result of what we now term longcovid sequelae syndrome.

My fundraising is something many people have asked me to do many times over the past 3 years and I have always refused as I do not feel I should accept charity from ordinary people who have many troubles in their own lives particularly with other issues that have arisen as a result of Covid or indeed because of the lack of their own government or health systems support.

Since I discovered other people with the illness in early 2020 I became a high profile volunteer press and media spokesperson for the longcovid support charity in the UK. Whilst I was unable to write or walk or leave the house for the first two years I was able to use my former training as a journalist at the BBC to speak on lots of different radio stations and give interviews to many broadcast media around the world.

I had absolutely no worry about telling my own personal story as by late 2020 I had been so ill with myocarditis, sepsis and early stage myeloma that I did not believe I would be alive if there were any ramifications and indeed I signed a 'do not resuscitate' order and wrote my Will.

Now more than three years on I have made some improvements but along the way I have still had more than 3 years with absolutely no income. The government did not give me any Covid support payments as the self-employed category I was in was not eligible. The benefit system decided I was not eligible for any payments as longcovid was not an illness that was recognised and as I had more than £16,000 in my pensions savings initially I did not qualify for any means tested support.

As a result I lived alone unable to leave the house other than for very occasional medical and hospital appointments for 3 years, living solely on credit cards and money I could get from selling all my possessions, including all my sentimental jewellery things like my father's wedding ring.

I am now faced with losing my home particularly as my mortgage payments have increased by over £1,000 per month and I am very much worried that I will not be able to carry on the fight as I feel that everything I have done now seems hopeless.

The fundraising I am now doing is a last chance as all I would like to do is carry on campaigning -shouting screaming podcasting and making sure everybody with longcovid their friends family and supporters gets justice from both the healthcare system, the financial system and our government.