Help Freya win her 18 month fight with long Covid

In April 2020 our friend Freya Williams caught Covid-19. Being strong, fit and in her forties she avoided hospitalization. Two weeks later, she thought she was on the mend and was keen to get back to life as a mother of two and CEO of a top sustainability consultancy in New York. On day 16 she suffered a massive relapse – and now, 18 months later, she still hasn’t recovered.

It’s hard to comprehend the devastating effects of Long Covid on this once-dynamic woman, but put simply Freya’s body is no longer able to produce energy. She suffers from debilitating fatigue – known as Exertion Intolerance – which makes simple tasks such as taking her kids to school or grocery shopping impossible. She can't read or write for more than a few minutes. Looking at a screen for more than several minutes causes severe headaches and relapses. Long Covid has also triggered other conditions, including Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia, an abnormal increase in her heart rate, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, which means she’s now allergic to all but a handful of foods. And then there are all her other weird and unpleasant symptoms, such as a strange vibrating sensation, which the doctors don’t understand or have a clue how to treat.

If Freya over-exerts herself even slightly she risks a catastrophic relapse, as happened in November last year. She had started working again for two hours a day, but even this mild activity triggered a crash and she ended up bed-bound for six months, having to use a wheelchair to attend hospital appointments.

The family has since tried everything they can to help Freya, including renting out their home so they could afford to spend some restorative time in a warmer climate. That didn't help. However, thanks to experimental drug protocols she has made some progress over the past few months: by June she was able to leave the house, and she can now occasionally manage to walk a mile. But her recovery is happening at a snail’s pace, and she is unrecognizable from the woman who used to run up to 40 miles a week and advised CEOs of the world’s biggest brands on sustainability. She is still unable to work – causing the family severe financial difficulties – and is shut out of her children’s lives, unable to join them on weekend activities or help with their homework, leaving her husband Tomo to cope on his own. To make matters worse, Freya lives with the threat of another devastating relapse if she does more than her body can cope with, and she and her doctors have no idea exactly where that invisible line lies.

Freya can currently only do ten percent of what she was once able, but although Long Covid remains a mystery there are a number of treatments that are showing real promise for sufferers. These include Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, neural retraining programs, acupuncture, and Vagus Nerve Therapy. None of these treatments are covered by insurance though, and their cost runs into thousands of dollars – which is the reason we have set up this appeal.

We are desperate to help our brilliant Freya recover some of that lost 90 percent of her life, and funding these treatments will be her best chance. In order for Freya to recover, it is critical that she and her family are not disrupted further, and forced to leave this city where the kids were born, careers were forged, and a community built. Please show your love and get this warrior back to where we need her to be - saving the world and having fun with her children. We hope that you can help. Thank you so much.