Healing Alison

Hello, I'm Monique and this is my friend Alison Goldie. This photo was taken in summer 2020 when she thought she was over the effects of coronavirus. The virus had other ideas and she has had a couple of relapses since, the last of which she has been suffering since May 2021 and it has been really difficult. Alison is now effectively disabled by Long Covid, with a raft of complex symptoms that have severely compromised her life.

Alison lives alone and has to care for herself. Chronic fatigue, vertigo, heart problems and gastric issues mean she can barely walk and has lost a lot of weight and muscle. She has to save the small pot of energy that the illness allows for performing the basic functions of life, and sometimes even those are too much. Cognitively, she is so affected that she cannot read more than a few lines or watch a screen without risking an intensifying of her symptoms. Seeing friends can deplete her very easily without careful management.

Those of you who know Alison as a warm, humorous, and healthy woman with a great enjoyment of life will be saddened by what has happened. That said, she is still recognisably Alison – if rather thinner – though every day is an enormous uphill struggle for her.

Long Covid – or Post Covid Syndrome – is not yet recognised as a disability in the U.K. (it is in the U.S.) and the medical establishment’s lack of understanding of it has tended to make Alison’s life harder rather than help her in any meaningful way.

As a self-employed arts worker, she has had few financial resources to fall back on and the pot is nearly dry. Alison needs physical and mental support from complementary health practitioners to keep her functioning and aid her recovery, which we hope – but do not know – will happen soon. Government benefits are scant and Alison doesn’t have the energy to deal with bureaucracy beyond having organised her basic entitlement to pay for rent and bills. She is in constant discomfort in spite of all her best efforts to help herself. A regular massage or similar would help her so much.

Please donate to this fund and help heal Alison.