At risk in Covid times: How pandemic has impacted some of Yorkshire's vulnerable people

Rachael Tomlinson is trying to strike a delicate balance – taking careful steps to claim back some semblance of the life she once regarded as ‘normal’, whilst acutely aware of the continuing circulation of a virus to which she is considered to be ‘vulnerable’.

She is not alone. Though the Government ended legal Covid-19 restrictions in England last month, more than 600,000 new cases of the virus were reported in the UK in the week up to March 21. It can make anyone seriously ill. But for some people, like Rachael, the risk is higher.

The 55-year-old, who lives in Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire, has Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It is named on the NHS website as being a health condition that puts people at high risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19.

Rachael, who uses a wheelchair, says she’s nervous now legal restrictions have ended. “Covid is still there. It’s not gone away and I do still feel worried that I’m going to get it or my mum is – she’s 85 with a lot of pre-existing conditions. I just don’t think we seem to be taking it seriously anymore.

“My MS symptoms flare up if I end up with a cold or anything. It can affect my vision, my balance, headaches, all sorts of things really. Even just getting a cold has a knock on effect.”

The start of the pandemic was an “overwhelming and confusing” time for people with chronic conditions, she says, and Rachael found support through the MS Society’s virtual meeting groups and expert webinars.

Though she didn’t receive a shielding letter in 2020, she chose to do so herself. “I was worried about catching it. I was so careful to keep away from people,” she says.

Alice Scanlon can relate to such worry. She tells The Yorkshire Post she shielded for the best part of 18 months from March 2020, leaving her house only to go on secluded walks.

“If I was to contract Covid, there’s a good chance it would finish up as pneumonia, which is obviously something I really don’t want to have,” she says.

The 69-year-old, who lives in Bridlington with husband Tony, has chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), a slow-growing type of blood cancer.

“It gives you a bit of a fright really going out and mixing with people again,” she says. “We wear our masks all the time whenever we go out anywhere and people look at you gone out now if you’ve got a mask on but that’s the way I think it’s going to be for a long, long time for me.”

Alice hasn’t been in a pub or restaurant for the duration of the pandemic and says she makes careful choices about where to go out and when. If the couple venture to the supermarket, they’re there for 7am and the shopping is all wiped down before being taken into their home.

“I feel sometimes like I’m walking around with a bottle of bleach stuck to the end of my arm because I’m cleaning everything to within an inch of its life.”

Alice was diagnosed with CLL in 2018. Initially she was on a ‘watch and wait’ monitoring programme but began treatment to target cancer cells last August. People with CLL usually have a weakened immune system and are more vulnerable to infections.

“I feel well and I feel as though life is beginning to pass by,” Alice says. “The older you get you can’t let life pass you by, you have got to live…I want to get out and enjoy life again.

“We always have done and we intend to do so but we just have had to take a back seat for a couple of years.

“But I do sometimes feel like will I ever be able to put my arms around someone and give them a hug again?”

Danny Strickland found that lack of physical contact particularly tough. His father John, from Morley, had begun living in a care home in Lofthouse a few months before the pandemic began, having been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in May 2019.

The home arranged video calls to connect residents and their families, but because of the restrictions, Danny only ended up having one face-to-f-ace visit with his father between February 2020 and when John sadly passed away aged 78 in January last year.

“Dad went from being happy go lucky and a bit forgetful every now and again to dying in less than two years,” Danny says. “It was so difficult We just wanted to be there to support him during those times.

“To not have an opportunity to sit with him, talk to him and help him through what was a difficult time for him as well as us was torture. I understand why that was the case and it was the right decision but it was just really difficult.”

Dementia is another condition that the NHS lists as putting people at high risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19. “At the start we were really scared that dad might catch Covid because that would have been the end of him I think, he was really weak,” Danny says.

“We went from thinking that to then worrying that he wouldn’t make it to the end of lockdown anyway – and that’s what happened in the end.”

“Dad’s care home did a brilliant job and took Covid really seriously,” he adds. “I’m glad they took the precautions they did because those people are the most vulnerable and need the most protecting.”

Today, March 23 marks two years since the Prime Minister announced the first lockdown, ordering people across the country to ‘stay at home’.

The legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive Covid-19 test has now been removed by the Government, though public health advice is still to stay at home and avoid contact with others if you’re testing positive or have symptoms.

“A lot of my support network is rugby and that all disappeared,” she says. Alice, meanwhile, hopes she will feel “safe enough” to start to enjoy more of the social side of life later this year.

She and her husband are normally actively involved in community organisations and enjoying barbecues, meals out and wine groups with their friends.

“It’s never going to go away is Covid, I can’t see it going away. But the new variants do seem to a be a bit less serious and people seem to cope with it a bit better...I don’t feel frightened as much now, but I’m concerned and a bit apprehensive.”

“I think the restrictions had to end,” Alice adds. “People need to get back to life again. “But I would just like people to be a bit more thoughtful and recognise that not everybody is in a situation where they can do that.”

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