Christine's COVID recovery sparks pogo-athon fundraising

A 71 year old grandmother of six has inspired family fundraising in honour of the hospital that saved her life after she contracted COVID-19.

Christine Leggett first noticed symptoms of the virus when she began to feel achy and lethargic. As her breathing was not affected she was advised to stay at home to recover from her symptoms. However a decline in her condition and difficulty breathing in the days after first noticing symptoms meant that Christine needed to be bought to hospital to have treatment.

Christine described arriving at the hospital “The ambulance arrived and the paramedics said I had a temperature and low oxygen and needed to be admitted. When we arrived I was taken through to a large room that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Everyone dressed in all the protective clothing and plastic sheeting separated different areas. A chest x-ray was taken and I was told that I had pneumonia on both lungs and it was highly likely that it was coronavirus. After a few more tests I was taken to a ward and put on oxygen”.

In the following days, despite treatment, her condition worsened and she needed to be taken to the intensive care unit for ventilation to help her to breathe and then oxygen therapy. She spent 4 days in intensive care before being discharged back to a ward. Two weeks after being admitted to hospital and only a week after leaving intensive care, Christine was able to return home to her loved ones to continue her recovery.

She explained “When I first came home I felt tired and didn't have a lot of energy, but after a couple of days I started walking a few laps round the garden, increasing the distance every day. I feel absolutely fine now and everyone says how well I look.

“The care that I received while in hospital was amazing. Everyone was treated with such kindness and I know they saved my life. No one should be worried about going into hospital”.

And now to thank the hospital her son Jonny, daughter-in-law Hayley and three of her grandchildren took on their own unique fundraising challenge to say thank you to the NHS.

Jonny explained how the idea of fundraising came about “Hayley had taken the lead role in calling the hospital twice a day for updates on mum, so she had first-hand experience of how well mum was being looked after. Captain Tom Moore had given us so much inspiration of what could be achieved in the back garden so we decided to do a 2.6km pogo-athon!

“Freddie, Summer and Minnie all took turns doing the 8.5m width of the garden on the pogo stick. We completed the challenge in just over two days on one of the hottest weekends. By the end of it they had blisters and bruising but they wanted to keep going for their nanny and the NHS. To date they have raised over £1,300.

“NGH saved my mum’s life. No if’s or but’s. We are eternally grateful”.

 

Jonny's fundraising page is avialable at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jonny-leggett