Long Covid forces Harpenden businessman into early retirement

Marcus was unable to keep warm while ill with long Covid - this was a rare moment out of bed in summer 2020

Three years ago, the first patients to develop long Covid began reporting debilitating symptoms. A recent survey suggested 14% of people with the illness have since lost their jobs.

Before the pandemic, Marcus Whitehead had a demanding and fulfilling career in financial services in London. But after catching coronavirus in 2020, he became far too ill to work.

Three years on, although he is physically much better, brain fog has prevented the 55-year-old from returning to his job.

Marcus, who lives in Harpenden, feels a "sense of loss" at retiring early and losing his mental agility. "I was no longer who I was," he says.

Listen: Marcus explains how long Covid affected him

'Like being injected with horse tranquiliser'

It was in April 2020 that Marcus first developed symptoms of Covid-19.

"It was typical corona - a temperature, a cough - a bit like flu. It wasn't too bad and I was able to work a bit," he says.

But a few days later it hit him "like a tonne of bricks" and he experienced "crushing, paralysing fatigue, like you'd been injected with horse tranquiliser".

Marcus also suffered "fierce organ pain" and intense headaches, spending the following three months in bed.

Marcus managed to attend his daughter's wedding, needing a walking stick, but suffered a relapse afterwards

"I spent another 12 months on the couch. For 18 months I didn't drive and had to use a walking stick. And I haven't been able to work since."

Marcus was managing partner of actuary firm Barnett Waddingham, overseeing 1,000 members of staff.

He likens the role of co-ordinating client strategy and supporting employees to "spinning plates".

"I was juggling dozens of plates a day, and then after Covid I was turned into this person who could hardly hold a single plate, let alone spin dozens."

In 2022, he attempted to reintegrate at work with support from his company. "I managed two days", he explains, "and I was back in bed with a massive relapse.

"It was quite soul-destroying, when I'd been so close to getting back to work. The first time I put my brain under any kind of pressure, it just gave up on me again."

Marcus chairing a conference with speaker Kenneth Clarke

Eventually it became clear that Marcus would have to leave his high-performance job, and he decided to retire a decade earlier than planned.

"I'm very fortunate to have a lot of health back. But it's been quite a dramatic change in what I expected of that decade up to my early sixties," he says.

The personal cost to Marcus has also been felt in the wider economy. A survey in March of 3,000 people self-reporting long Covid found 14% of them had lost their jobs for reasons connected to the condition.

Of the two million people in the UK who report having long Covid, 20% feel significantly limited in their ability to undertake day-to-day activities, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Claire Hastie is a founding member of the charity Long Covid Support, whose online support group has over 60,000 members. She set it up after struggling to find any information or help when she failed to recover from the virus.

"Huge numbers of people are no longer able to work at all, or to their previous capacity, having to reduce their hours and take less senior roles," she says.

Claire Hastie founded a long Covid support group on Facebook after she and her children had severe symptoms

Claire believes Marcus's story highlights a significant need for "urgent research" into the "debilitating condition".

"At a time of labour and skills shortages, the impact of long Covid on the economy is significant," she says.

As well as those who have stopped working, "others are struggling to keep their jobs but at a huge cost to their health and ability to do anything else", she adds.

And it is not just limited to those with long Covid, but their families too. Marcus's wife Sue also decided to stop working for a while to help him recover.

"I spotted that Marcus's health was better on weekends, when we're doing stuff together and I'm not working ten-hour days, leaving him to his own devices."

She believes that giving up her job, as a capital programme director for a local authority, has been the secret to "unlocking" his recovery.

Marcus and Sue plan to travel to aid his recovery

Although Marcus still struggles with brain fog, his physical health has recently improved.

The couple were left to look for solutions, trawling social media for advice, as "the medical profession did not have any cures and still doesn't".

So they tried anything and everything to improve his condition. "I felt like a guinea pig. At times I would beg Sue not to bring another attempted solution," he says.

He spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, changed his diet and took all kinds of pills and supplements - "even resorting to buying medication from Bangladesh".

Marcus tried hyperbaric oxygen treatment to cure long Covid

Sue also worked on pacing his energy levels, which led to some improvements alongside "an exceptionally good diet" with no ultra processed foods.

But the real change came earlier this year, through a programme called the lightning process, which has also been used to treat people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that it is not offered by the NHS to those with CFS due to "some concerning issues" raised in studies, which are disputed by the lightning process.

The privately funded programme focuses on interactions between the brain and the body.

"The turnaround was really quite dramatic," Marcus says. "I was already on a good underlying healing curve, but this boosted it.

"There isn't medical, scientific proof - it is just my personal experience - but I tried an awful lot of things that haven't worked. Now I feel physically much better."

Sue says the couple are now spending time travelling and visiting friends, after observing that Marcus felt better when they went away.

"We've called it the Year of Yes," she says. "Anything that's happening, we're going to try and do it."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it was providing £50 million to scientists to better understand the long-term effects of coronavirus.

"We recognise that long Covid has debilitating impacts on physical and mental health. We have invested £314 million to establish specialist services throughout England to direct people experiencing long Covid into the right treatment and rehabilitation services, including occupational health services."

Update 11 September 2023: A line has been added to reflect NICE guidelines on the lighting process.

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