Covid survivor 'living best life possible'

Karen Thorp said she was "determined to live a life that makes me worthy" of the family that supported her

A teacher who wrote of her experience fighting back to health from Covid-19 has spoken of her determination to "live the best life".

Karen Thorp, 52, from St Albans, spent three weeks under sedation in intensive care after being taken ill on the first day of lockdown in March.

She has since looked at lifestyle changes and had, until tier four was introduced, been out "under the rules".

"It won't stop me living my life when I nearly lost it," she said.

"Some people who have had it are very nervous about getting it again... I'm not letting it stop me but I'm following the rules.

"It's just a matter of doing everything you can to not catch it again.

"I'm now reassessing all aspects of my life and concentrating on living the best life possible."

Karen, who is in a support bubble with her parents, has thanked family and friends for their "huge amount of love and support"

Ms Thorp, who has type 2 diabetes, was taken to Watford General Hospital on 23 March, only emerging from sedation three weeks later, by which time she had been transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital.

She left hospital in May and once back home, where she lives alone, she wrote an account of her experience to help her cope and for others to understand what she had been through.

Nine months on, Ms Thorp still suffers from extreme fatigue which, she says, "just comes out of the blue", and daily muscle pain, which she describes as "horrendous" but her "new normal".

Although she has not seen many people outside of her full-time work at a special school, she has met friends for socially-distanced walks.

Aware that "not managing her diabetes properly" and her weight may have been related to how severely she was affected, she has made some changes.

'Happy to be alive'

She is now "much better" at taking her daily medication, she says, and although she has put back on some of the three stone (19kg) she lost in hospital - most of which was muscle wastage - she is "trying to be healthier" in her food choices and has joined a gym.

"After the second lockdown I was looking forward to going back [to the gym] - words which I thought I would never utter," she says.

"I'm doing a proper weekly shop and cooking instead of buy things for the microwave daily, so I'm looking after myself better."

She recently got the go-ahead to return to singing, her "lifeline to good mental health", and took part in a St Albans Chamber Opera rendition of White Christmas.

The overwhelming feeling is that she is "extremely happy to be alive".

"I'm grateful to my family and friends who have shown me such a huge amount of love and support during all of this and I am determined to live a life that makes me worthy of them," she says.

Ms Thorp was taken to Watford General Hospital after falling on to her face while ill