“It’s the perfect medicine to feeling brighter after years of darkness.”
That’s how one man has described his “social prescription” to a Bury-based tennis group while struggling with the physical and mental impact of long Covid.
Five years on from the pandemic, Stephen Finneran (43), from Prestwich, said: “Covid hit me hard.
“From an active life including playing football every week and enjoying tennis, badminton and regular 20-mile hikes with friends, I was wiped out with severe fatigue and shortness of breath. I was unable to work as an archivist, and I felt like life had been taken from me.”
One of an estimated 1.9 million people in England and Scotland living with long Covid, Stephen outlined how medication alone has not been the answer to his condition.
He said: “Being unable to work, play competitive sport or walk for any length of time without struggling to breathe, reduced my world.
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“I couldn’t talk without quickly becoming breathless and this made me socially isolated and affected my mental health.
“For someone used to being out and about with others this was brutal.”
Supported by Julie Marshall – one of a team of 10 social prescribers working across GP practices in Bury, Prestwich and Whitefield – Stephen has taken up walking tennis.
He said: “It enables me to play a sport I love at a pace I can cope with, plus meet other people. I’m already feeling the benefits, both physically and mentally…”
READ MORE at source: https://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/25176454.prestwich-long-covid-sufferer-got-life-back/
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