A MUM who was left chronically ill after suffering with Covid wants to raise awareness and urge people to “stay true to yourself”.

Kirsty Huxter, 47, worked with her husband in their IT business, and ran a toddler group for ten years before she tested positive for Covid in March 2022.

She isolated for a week with her family and then “sprang back” into work.

She tested positive again at the end of December 2022, and she felt “really tired and dragged down” for five weeks before being forced to spend days in bed in her Essex home.

Kirsty said: “I went to the GP and they said it can take a long time to get over Covid, just keep pacing yourself and rest, and so I did.

“But I was finding I could do less and less.”

Five months later, after a couple of days of feeling better and living her life as normal, Kirsty took a turn for the worse.

In August last year, she suffered another infection and has been left unable to stand without feeling dizzy, nor stand any sensory input – including watching TV, listening to the radio, reading books, or even having her curtains open – without more pain.

Kirsty said: “I felt like I was dying.

“It shrinks your world.

“It’s like a little memory of what life used to be like.”

While she has had great support from her husband and three children, aged 20, 18 and 14, seeing everyone else’s lives continue around her has been one of the most painful parts of her illness.

Kirsty said: “I was a stay-at-home mum a lot of the time. I used to play football and talk about their homework, and for a year I wasn’t there at all.

“I went from being very involved, always there for them – and then I wasn’t.”

Her husband of 21 years, David, has taken on looking after the home, and Kirsty said he “has basically been a single dad for a year and a half”.

But Kirsty is bravely looking ahead to recovery.

She has found immense support in an online programme by Suzie Bolt – who she said is “the Joe Wicks of chronic illness” – and friends she has made through her online breathwork and gentle muscle exercise classes.

“It has been an absolute godsend.

“Most of us are housebound, which is a very, very isolating place to be.

“Suzie’s programme has given me a routine each day, and it’s a club that no one wanted to join but once you’re in it, you’re really glad to have the other club members.

“I’m trying to be really positive and accepting and looking forward to recovery, while knowing that it might take a few years to get there.”

Kirsty, who was the manager of Braintree Youth Project charity, said her condition is starting to improve, so that she can now enjoy a film, watch a whole football match, and walk to the apple tree at the end of her garden.

She said: “I’m very grateful for my family, who have borne it remarkably well and tried to be positive and support me.

“And then there’s my support from a group of women from all around the world, who I speak to nearly all day.

“We’re all living and learning,” she added.

“I want people to realise that something unexpected can happen to you and turn your life upside down.

“We’re all only one illness or injury away from your life changing.

“So I want to say, stay true to yourself and do what you want to do, because you never know when it might stop.”