'I thought I was coming out in a box': Fit and healthy double-jabbed Leeds mum who ended up in ICU with Covid was told the vaccines 'saved her life'

Kate Goldring, 40, of Rothwell, warned what happened to her could happen to “anyone”, after she ended up critically-ill in Pinderfields Hospital “fighting for breath and sadly with people dying around me”.

Despite being “the fittest I’d been in my entire life”, with no underlying health conditions and double-jabbed, Kate - who is business development director at charity Leeds Mind - spent two weeks in hospital fearing she would not survive, and now, five months on, still suffers debilitating fatigue, soaring heart rates, daily headaches and frequent breathlessness.

She has spoken out to share her experience and warn people “how scary and awful the virus is” - and urged them to ignore the politics and “scandal” of the Government and “have faith in science”.

“I thought I was going to come out in a box, I really did. I wasn’t able to see my friends or family, I have a little boy….

“I texted my husband at one point and said ‘I don’t know how this is going to turn out’.

“The nurses [who treated me] had treated those who had been vaccinated and those who hadn’t and they said that the vaccines just saved my life. I only have that anecdotally. But I didn’t hesitate for a second when the booster came out.”

She added: “I really believe in science. People out there are doing incredible work trying to stop this thing.

“I want to let people know this isn’t just a runny nose.”

Kate had struggled at home for nine days after first testing positive in July and thought she was improving when her sister-in-law, a nurse, said she sounded breathless on the phone and urged her to seek medical advice.

A call to 111 saw her being sent straight to A&E.

She said: “My husband took me down and I didn’t come out for two weeks.”

Medics examined her and immediately admitted her onto the Covid ward for continuing oxygen treatment.

“I was getting a bit better but then my oxygen levels nose-dived again.

“I couldn’t get to the bathroom which was only about three or four steps away but I couldn’t come off the oxygen long enough to do it.

“Even on the oxygen, it felt like you were suffocating. It was really harrowing.”

It became clear that Kate needed more intensive treatment and she was taken to an ICU ward to be given an CPAP mask, which forces high-pressured oxygen into lungs.

“The staff basically said you are going downhill and we need to put you on the next level of care.

“They told me it was going to be a bit scary on the acute ward, with more PPE and lots of noise and sounds.

“They took me down and it was incredibly industrial. People almost looking like aliens.

“Thankfully I took well to the CPAP", she said, struggling as she added: "But there were people around me that didn’t."

"It was quite harrowing being in there. But the staff were incredible.”

Having become disillusioned with the nation’s leadership herself, she said she can see how the Prime Minister’s messages have “lost traction with so many”.

Posting on Facebook, in a bid to spread the word, she said: “The scandal, elitism, general disregard for the electorate, it’s abhorrent. I’ve lost faith in all of them”.

But added: “What I continue to have faith in is science. Science is based on facts, research, and evidence.

“So I’ll take the learnings of greater brains than mine and use it. For me that meant getting my booster and doing anything I can to minimise my exposure to this awful virus.”

She said: “I don’t want to preach about vaccines, I choose to follow science and I’m not asking for a debate. I just wanted to share my experience to show that this thing is real and can have dire consequences for you and your loved ones.”

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