Paul O'Grady has opened up about the the impact coronavirus has had on him and says it 'finished him off'.
The television icon was unable to work for two months when he contracted Covid-19 last year and has now told about how it caused his "breath to go".
Paul, 67, previously suffered two heart attacks and was so concerned about his health that he contacted his cardiologist, fearing he might never recover.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, he said: “I managed to escape Covid until last year and then I caught it. I didn’t half get it; I was really ill.
“It wiped me out, I was shocked at how bad I was. I was a good two months getting over it. My breath had gone. I’d go out to feed the pigs and I’d have to sit down two or three times on my way there, wheezing.”
After speaking to his specialist he was diagnosed as having long Covid.
The For the Love of Dogs presenter went on to say: “All I did was sleep. I’d wake up, go downstairs and sit on the couch and then pass out for another four hours.
“I’d get up, have a cup of tea and then go back to bed and sleep all night, it was very odd. I just felt terrible with it. I’ve never slept so much in my life. I’d had all the jabs, but it just finished me off.
“Thank God I’m over it now, but at one time I thought: ‘Is this ever going to go? Am I ever going to get my energy back and stop being tired?’ It wasn’t pleasant.”
Most people with coronavirus (COVID-19) feel better within a few days or weeks of their first symptoms and make a full recovery within 12 weeks. For some people, symptoms can last longer.
This is called long COVID or post COVID-19 syndrome. Long COVID is a new condition which is still being studied, according to the NHS.
Paul caught the virus while in Malta and he recalls: “We got one day’s filming in the can and that night I felt a bit off and then the next day I felt like I was dying. I had a vicious headache and a terrible cough. I spent nine days in a hotel room going slowly around the bend.
“There were only two channels on the telly. One was the BBC and the other was E!. I know everything about the Kardashians now. I could go on Mastermind and they could be my specialist subject! It was a really lengthy script and I’d learnt it and then of course I didn’t get to do it.
"I eventually flew back home and I felt a lot better and then after a couple of days I felt shocked and I was back in bed again, I just couldn’t shake it off.”
Paul, who used to perform in drag as acerbic Lily Savage, eventually recovered and is this year back at work playing Miss Hannigan in a nationwide tour of the musical Annie.
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