Last Tuesday, I spent my birthday recovering from coronavirus. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I have a condition called A1AT that affects my lungs and liver.

I started feeling tired just over two weeks ago but I thought that was just from the pressures of teaching. But then I felt freezing and the next day I developed a cough so I was advised by work to isolate for 14 days.

By Wednesday, NHS 111 strongly suspected that I had the virus.

I struggled to breathe and felt constantly dizzy – I felt like I was about to pass out. But I tried to keep calm, drink plenty of water and keep as busy as I could.

By Friday I think I’m feeling better. I’m not coughing as much, my breathing is steadier and my fever isn't as erratic... oh how wrong I am!

Friday afternoon and I’m sweating. The first sign that I’m not over this. Then – bam! I flop on the couch. Black out. Vomiting. Coughing fit. Stop breathing for a second.

Over the next few hours I fluctuate quite rapidly between feeling better to feeling horrendous. By the end of the day I’ve been sick four times and I’ve had multiple dizziness or black out episodes.

At this point I’m unsure whether to go to hospital. I feel as though I’ll be wasting valuable resources and I may be an infection risk to vulnerable patients.

Through all this I have to somehow continue working, sending work in for the kids I teach, planning lessons. If you are unwell you shouldn't even work from home. It took me approximately 10 hours to complete one lesson and the work to go with it.

At 7pm on Saturday night I ring NHS 111 again. I’m in a really bad way. We wait nine hours for an ambulance to arrive and face-to-face assess me.