Athletics coach reveals his three-month 'debilitating' battle with coronavirus

Wayne Singleton, who founded Ulverston Triathlon Club and lives in Endmoor, began experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 at the end of March before the nationwide lockdown was put in place.

The 45-year-old, who is a keen runner and athletics coach, said his physical and mental health both suffered due to the virus.

He said: “I really didn’t feel great. I had a bunch of symptoms and said to my wife, let’s all self-isolate at home for two weeks. I had relatively mild symptoms in the grand scheme of things.

“I struggled with breathing, it felt like someone was sat on my chest and the fatigue was really bad as well. I would be out gardening and just feel absolutely knackered and have to go lie down for a two hour nap.”

Mr Singleton, who regularly ran eight to ten mile runs five times a week, struggled to run one mile whilst recovering from the virus.

He said: “After two weeks I started feeling better and went out for a one-mile run and it just wrecked me. It would take me two weeks to recover from it. I felt like I couldn’t get any breath into my lungs. It slowly stopped me doing anything at all.”

Mr Singleton said he was ‘shocked’ with the long-term impact of Covid-19 which left him ‘debilitated’.

He said: “I have friends that work in hospitals who say the long-term impact on recovery is substantial and can cause scarring on the lungs.

“Post-viral fatigue is huge - I had really mild symptoms comparatively but really suffered afterwards.”

Mr Singleton, who still feels the impact of the virus now, said he is slowly building his fitness back up.

He said: “I’ve been building up the exercise slowly and seeing how much I can push myself. In normal circumstances I would’ve fought it, but I was knackered.

“One day I can go for out for an hour-long walk and feel fine then the next day I can do the same and it’ll knock me sideways. There’s no defined pattern to it at all but I’m slowly making progress.”