International Long Covid Awareness Day: Joanna’s Story

Description: Joanna Laidlaw, 61, lives in Kirknewton, West Lothian. She has been living with the symptoms of Long Covid since February 2021 and has had to give up her job as a pupil support worker in a primary school.

Joanna Laidlaw, 61, lives in Kirknewton, West Lothian. She has been living with the symptoms of Long Covid since February 2021 and has had to give up her job as a pupil support worker in a primary school. Joanna has been supported by Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland through the myTailoredTalks project and is a member of the CHSS Long Covid Support Group. 

Life for Joanna Laidlaw was busy. A full-time job as a school pupil support worker. Shopping three times a week for her elderly mum. Visiting her son. Long walks with her sister-in-law. Then those lovely Sundays riding pillion on husband Stuart’s motorbike around the country.

Then Joanna got Covid-19 in February 2021. Now, two years on, she can only look back on those busy days and weeks when she was fit and active and, as she puts it, took her health for granted. 

Joanna is living with Long Covid and experiences fatigue and brain fog. The virus has also affected her ankle and knee joints, meaning she finds it almost impossible to walk the long distances she once covered and often just impossible to walk at all.

The 61-year-old, who lives in Kirknewton in West Lothian, said: “Before Covid-19, I was always on the go. I had a completely active lifestyle but not now. 

“I’ve tried to go back to work a few times when I thought I was feeling better. But covid tricks you into thinking you’re better when you’re not. I went back to work for a day and a half and was floored for three weeks. 

“It’s been two years and I’m not as bad as I was at the start, but I’m nowhere near what I used to be. I don’t think I’ll ever recover that. I’ve had to grieve for my old life.”

Joanna has had support through NHS Lothian and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland’s myTailoredTalks, a digital program for those with Long Covid. She is also a member of the CHSS Long Covid Support Group, which meets online every week and has become a vital forum for patients with Long Covid. 

She hasn’t been able to return to work and has applied to retire on medical grounds. The mum of one has learned to manage her condition carefully by resting before and after any activity.

A chance encounter with a CHSS employee last year signposted her to the Long Covid Support Group, which she says has been very helpful.

She said: “It was actually a relief when I joined the group to see so many people like me. People think you are fine when they meet you. I’ve had so many telling me how well I look and when I say ‘I have Long Covid. It’s an illness and I’m not well at all’, they look shocked. But I’ve had to be up front with people because appearances can be deceptive. I’ve experienced that stigma of people not believing I’m really ill. 

“In fact, having Long Covid has made me much more aware of hidden disabilities. Just because I haven’t got a sling or a stookie, just because you can’t see what’s wrong with me doesn’t me it isn’t there. Long Covid is there. And it’s ruining people’s lives.”

Joanna has turned to crafting – sewing and crocheting – to keep herself active. She has also kept a journal of her experiences since contracting covid and, having always written poetry, is also writing poems about the effect of Long Covid on her life.

She said: “Sometimes I wish there was a magic pill that could get my life back to normal, but there isn’t. I have to stay upbeat but I still have down days, and when I do, I take myself off to do some sewing and I think that there are people worse off than me to snap myself out of it. 

“Writing in my journal and writing poems helps me a lot. I can look back and see how much I’ve improved over the months or I can get creative about something I’ve seen.

“I’ve had so much support from my husband and my son, and from my extended family and friends. I couldn’t have got here without them or CHSS.”