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'Long Covid affects me every day, anything I do'

Alastair Fee
BBC South Health Correspondent
Molly is preparing to travel to Liverpool for help at a private clinic to treat her long covid symptoms

Living with long Covid for four years has been "horrible", a teenager has said.

Molly, who lives in Weymouth, is now 16 and said she rarely goes out. When she does she needs the help of a wheelchair as she gets tired easily.

Without dedicated NHS in Dorset, she is planning to travel to Liverpool to attend a private clinic.

She said she has "two good days a week, maybe three, and the rest I am shut away".

Molly said the condition had made her feel "closed off from friends, from school, from anything".

"It affects me every day, anything I do," she continued.

"It's symptoms from really severe fatigue to heart palpitations, fainting, I've had seizures and allergic reactions.

"It's just communications from the brain through the nervous system not functioning properly, sending the wrong signals, which makes it really uncomfortable for people like us to live with it."

Family Handout Molly is sat in her wheelchair outside in a grass field and looks at the camera. She has her hair in two plaits and wears a grey hoodie with blue jeans and tan coloured Ugg boots. Woody her assistance dog is stood next to her, wearing a red harness.Family Handout
Molly gets tired easily and uses a wheelchair to get around

In November 2023, the Dorset Post Covid Syndrome Service - a long Covid clinic where Molly was receiving care - stopped its service for paediatric patients, only taking adults.

Children and young people were instead ed to a service for chronic fatigue.

But Molly said it was not equipped to deal with the complexities of long Covid and left her without specialist care.

"I really struggled with that because everyone is still suffering, why have they shut it down":[]}