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Robin McNelis’s Covid-19 symptoms were so mild he didn’t know he’d had the disease.
It was only when a routine test at the hospital where he works as a respiratory physiotherapist came back positive that he found out his headache and fatigue were caused by the virus.
‘I was surprised to be told I had tested positive and should stay off work,’ says Robin, 47, who lives in Stapleford Abbotts, Essex, with his wife Nikki, 45, a project manager, and daughter Maya, 13.
‘I’d had no temperature or dry cough, but had lost my senses of taste and smell. I thought I’d got off lightly.’
But three days after testing positive, Robin suddenly felt so weak while out in the garden he couldn’t lift his arms to use the hedge clippers.
‘I lost my balance and felt dizzy, falling to the ground, twice,’ he says. ‘I sat down on a garden bench and immediately fell asleep for about five minutes. Then I got up and went back into the house, but struggled to walk up the stairs.’
None of this made sense. As a seasoned marathon runner, Robin was exceptionally fit. But the problems continued. He had to keep stopping when walking uphill, and felt a tightness across his chest and back when exercising.