About

I’m now 44 and 2020 was the most brutal of my life; I was in a job I hated and desperate to move on but had a baby on the way so couldn’t just walk away. I caught Covid early in March when we still knew very little about it and chose not to go off sick and tried to work through it as I had a big project to deliver and after all work is important!

It turns out this “pushing through” is likely to be a contributory factor in developing long Covid according to recent findings.

My beautiful daughter Olly was born on April 26th but Nic nearly died after giving birth and was on 8 weeks bed rest, so I pushed through again looking after her and Olly and our boys. My health kept declining and I couldn’t do anything more than survive, just getting food to eat exhausted me. I slept all the time and ate rubbish as a comfort and my weight soared.

I tried returning to work a few times, but my mental capacity was gone. Due to the Long Covid brain fog I have literally no memory of July 2020; in my head it doesn’t exist. I did manage to move to a new house in September, but it was exhausting as we had to do it alone, at least our family now has enough space. Eventually depression and anxiety took hold in October and I was signed off sick again; this time I listened to advice and stopped.

I finally found a new job in December almost a year after I started looking and it is going well so far. Now I am stable and well on the road to recovery.

But, I find myself nearly back to my heaviest ever (over 19 stone) and unsure of how well my body and my mind will function.

I decided the route to my recovery is through adventure and learning new skills, so I have set myself the challenge of completing a 90km cross country ski race in Sweden in February 2022.

The Vasaloppet is well-known in Scandinavia but here in the UK it is unheard of.

I am starting from scratch in many ways, I don’t have the same body or mind from earlier in my life when I completed Ultra marathons or ran 5k in 20 minutes. I must re-learn my own body and my limits again while being wary of “pushing through” pain and exhaustion as I could relapse. On top of that I must learn a skill in the UK that normally requires “snow” which has next to none. It’s a careful juggling act with time and energy at a premium but the reward should be fantastic.

2020 was a difficult time for everyone but I believe positive inspiration goes a long way.

I have been inspired by others like Mark Beaumont, Danny Bent and Nikki Love and much like paying it forwards in by putting a coffee behind the counter for someone that needs it I hope I can pay forward the inspiration from others and pass it onwards.