COVID-19 In the United Kingdom

Lyn 2m 549 #covid19

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Last June I was recalled for a mammogram. I quite frankly thought nothing of it, even delaying the retest due to work commitments. I visited the unit for a range of tests. My results showed I had a small but aggressive cancerous growth. At the time, I was working as a manager in the NHS and tried to continue working, but couldn’t do so. I had my operation in July, followed by all the various treatments, and my prognosis is excellent. How does this impact on my Covid-19 experience you ask? Well, when the pandemic came to England I’d been pretty much self-isolating for seven months and I’d just started to get out and about more. I’d discovered by working on Fiverr that I could set my work times and pace and I’m now a freelancer full time.

My husband, who was due to start training for his new job, was keeping up with the news regarding the pandemic. So, I was amazed that the UK government did not bring the look down in about two weeks earlier. I strongly believe that doing so would have saved some lives. Furthermore, Covid-19 was brought into the area I live in by two people returning from skiing in Italy during the school half-term. The government should have stopped all overseas travel for half-term week. The pandemic would not have taken such a hold on this country if the government had acted sooner.

The UK government should have looked to what was happening in Europe; instead, they sided with Trump. I believe that was a big mistake. The politics of being in the process of leaving the European Union should have been left to the side, and the UK should have learnt from Italy and then Spain. They should have accepted the hand of friendship and advice that the EU was offering.

Early on during the lockdown, in common with many people, I went through a range of emotions; mostly fear led about Covid-19. But I am lucky; I’d learnt from the cancer that crystals could ease my pain, that the essential oil treatments that I’d turned my back on whilst I had modern treatments. I found comfort that they helped my spiritually and physically in a way that nothing else could.

On a practical level, I went through some very frustrating times; even before the lockdown started; we were unable to buy eggs, teabags or rice. I had toilet rolls and believed the reports that there was not a shortage and neither would there be. We were within a day of cutting up newspapers to use when my husband managed to buy some. As a vulnerable person, I am in full lockdown. During week two we very nearly ran out of food. We were down to re-using tea bags and having some strange meals. When we did have a home delivery, a lot of the ingredients were missing, so the strange meals continued for a few more weeks. Gradually, things have settled down. I still struggle to get food delivered and notice that prices have gone up, and many things are not available. We are growing as many vegetables as we can and just before the lockdown we went out to a farm and bought 6 Quail for egg production.

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