William

Around March 2020, William started to get Covid symptoms and since then has experienced “on and off” Long Covid symptoms. William’s mum and twin brother also suffer from Long Covid and when they all first got ill “we couldn’t really do anything.” William was interviewed in December 2021.

Around March 2020, William started to get Covid symptoms and since then has experienced “on and off” fatigue and muscle pain. A year after falling ill, William started experiencing frequent “visual disturbances”, seizure-like episodes that sometimes make him faint, and he is having investigations for epilepsy.

William’s mum and twin brother also suffer from Long Covid and when they all first got ill William said “…we couldn’t really do anything.” His older brother has had to do all the cooking. During the 1st lockdown, when William got ill, he wasn’t able to visit his dad’s house for a long time.

William’s missed a lot of school, mainly because of his strong fatigue and seizures. Not physically being in school has had a negative impact on William’s existing relationships, with some of his old friends forming other friendships. William likes to play badminton, but feels he can only now do so in-between “relapses.”

Sometimes William worries about his mum as she experiences memory problems and fatigue and hasn’t been able to leave the house without a wheelchair for a long time. He says he worries that she “won’t really recover from it.”

Although William was unwell himself, he was worried about his mother, who was also dealing with Long Covid.

Age at interview 12

Yeah, because a lot of the time, a lot of the time, like her memory just just like, just dies and, like and like today in fact, like I was just leaving her room and she’s like, “Oh, hello William,” like I just entered it was, it was slight-, slightly weird.

Like a little bit confused, kind of?

Yeah.

And do you worry about her, like in the future?

Yeah.

What do you worry about?

Because like she’s actually been, because like she hasn’t, she hasn’t really been able to leave the house without a wheelchair for a while because because of her fatigue, and like I worry that she won’t like that she won’t really recover from it, so she’ll like always have to go around in a wheelchair.

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William’s older brother picked up a lot of the household work, including cooking for the family.

Age at interview 12

It was, it was quite frustrating because like because our mum couldn’t do anything, and we couldn’t really do anything, and I had to get used to our brother’s cooking, which was an experience.

What sort of things did he make?

A lot of stir-fry, like a lot, a lot of stir-fry, like multiple times a week…

Was it?

Yeah it was, it was really.

Yeah, but you didn’t enjoy it to begin with?

No.

Has he got better?

He has, but he’s still not amazing.

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William has been able to continue some activities “between relapses” and has been in and out of school.

Age at interview 12

I like doing badminton, I didn’t do it that much that then. There isn’t really anything else; I don’t really have a lot of things to do.

And have you been able to play badminton since you’ve been unwell?

Yes, but, like between relapses really.

So, like so, like I’ve actually not been in school for the for the past like two weeks because of a, because of the strong fatigue relapse.

Although this time I was like at the beginning of this week, I was missing a fair-, I was missing quite a lot of sleep and I just couldn’t wake up in the morning.

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