Four years on, kids reflect on the impact of Covid

Ruari said the impact of the pandemic on society was "irreversible"

The Covid pandemic hit the UK hard, but it was particularly challenging for young people whose childhoods were clouded by lockdowns, social distancing and isolation.

In 2021, a year after the UK's first pandemic lockdown, the BBC spoke to young people about how the experience had affected them.

Four years on, they reflect on the impact of Covid on their lives.

Ruari, 13

Ruari, from York - who was nine when he first spoke to the BBC - said the experience of the first lockdown being called was "really frightening".

He said: "I was just a naïve little kid...I didn't really understand what was going on."

While he struggled with not being able to see family and friends, Ruari said he had some fond memories of the time - including when he camped with his older brother in his family's back garden for 50 nights, raising around £1,500 for the RSPCA.

"That was as a thank you because we got cats in lockdown, which was a really big highlight," he said.

Ruari, a Manchester United fan, said another highlight was watching a match with a friend in person the day after lockdowns were lifted.

He added: "It was the first person I'd seen other than my family for ages and ages, it was mental to see them.

"But a really good mental."

Four years on, he said he believed the pandemic and everything that came with it had had an "irreversible" impact on society.

"That's not something you just skip past," he added.

Marnie, 10

Marnie said the time spent in lockdown "didn't feel real"

Marnie, from Tollerton, used her time at home during the first lockdown to draw rainbows and post them through her neighbours' doors to help "make people happy".

Four years on, she said she remembered the time as being "quite hard".

"We did every lesson online, " she said.

"It got quite lonely at times because I didn't see my friends, but we did go and post each other letters like once a month," she added.

Being only six when she first spoke to the BBC, Marnie said that the time during lockdown "didn't feel real".

"But I did realise there was this horrible disease going around," she said.

Her favourite memory of the pandemic was when restrictions were lifted and she was first allowed to meet up with other people again.

She said: "When we first got back together it was my seventh birthday."

She added: "I got a blue Care Bear, which I absolutely love, and we met up with some family friends and had a picnic at the park."

Billy, 20

Billy had to complete his GCSEs during lockdown

Billy, from Harrogate, was 16 during the first lockdown, meaning he experienced the added challenge of completing his GCSEs from home.

"[By the third lockdown] it felt like we were going to be in and out of them forever," he said.

"I was terrified I'd never go back to school properly."

But he said he enjoyed the freedom that studying remotely allowed him, taking up cycling in his extra spare time.

"I could get all my work done a couple of weeks in advance and had a load of time," he said.

"Then, of course, I got a really nice expensive road bike right as the lockdown ended and almost never used it."

He went on to achieve top marks in his A levels before taking a gap year, and is now in the process of applying to join the Army.

Billy said of the pandemic: "I definitely came out of it a lot different to how I got in."

"We came out of it lucky because we didn't know anyone who passed from it or anything like that [so] I try to look on the bright side," he added.

Emily, 13

Emily said she and her friends appreciated each other more now

During the first lockdown, Emily - from Norton-on-Derwent - helped her mum make about100 scrubs bags to donate to hospitals.

She said of that time: "I think it helped me and other people to distract them and me from what was going on outside."

Aged nine at the time, she said she struggled most during lockdowns with not being able to go to school where her friends were, and with "being out of the normal routine".

About finally seeing her friends again she said: "I remember us all just running towards each other and then stopping because we were all in bubbles."

"We were very glad to see each other anyway," she added.

Emily's schooling was further affected after the pandemic when she got glandular fever, meaning she missed most of Year 7.

Now back at school, she said she was enjoying being back into activities like swimming, and said she was looking forward to going back to doing theatre.

She said: "Me and my friends are spending a lot more time together, especially after lockdown.

"I don't think we actually realised how much we needed each other."

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