Long Covid: Children of the 90s participants to be studied

Participants will take part in tests including organ scanning to see how the virus may have affected them

Scientists have recruited hundreds of people for a multi-million pound Long Covid research project.

Participants from Bristol-based Children Of The 90s project have been selected for organ scan tests to see how they might have been affected.

University College London (UCL) is running the study and hopes it could lead to new treatments.

Research participant Michael Bradford from Bristol said he has been suffering from long Covid since November 2020.

"It's just never really gone away. One minute you're doing really fine and the next day you just don't have any energy and struggle to get out of bed," he said

"I don't feel I'm living my life as full as I was."

Children Of The 90s participants have been chosen due to the already existing historical database they are part of

Children of the 90s is a long-term, multi-generational health survey which currently involves about 27,800 people.

Mr Bradford said he is ready to take on the tests for the study in the next few weeks even though it will be "full on" for his long Covid symptoms.

"It is all about trying to figure out what's going on with this. Why some people get it as bad as they do.

"I'm quite willing to put myself through that and possibly pay the payback, because five or 10 years down the line we may find a cure," he added.

Prof Hughes said he hoped the study might produce potential new treatments by studying long Covid symptoms

The study, which is funded by a £9.4m grant, is part of a series of research projects that have overall been awarded £18.5m by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and UK Research and Innovation.

UCL professor of cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology Alun Hughes said he hopes to find "signals" linked to long Covid.

"We wonder whether they are linked to the symptoms people experience," he said.

"If you have fatigue is that something to do with having more severe effects on the muscle or the heart?

"If you have brain fog is that because you have more damage in the brain?

"If there is damage that's accrued as a result of Covid that may have importance particularly in 20 years time."