"I didn’t think I would make it but I am on the road to recovery. We’ll get through this if everyone pulls together."

That is the stirring message from 79-year-old Tuam woman, Kitty Farrell, who is set to spend her first weekend at home since contracting the coronavirus.

With sterling help from doctors and nurses at University Hospital Galway, Kitty, who will celebrate her 80th birthday before the end of the month, beat the coronavirus and arrived back home on Thursday having been given the all-clear.

It marked the end of an 18-day ordeal. She spent more than a fortnight in isolation in University Hospital Galway. And Kitty admits she did not expect to survive her harrowing experience: "I had a tough time. I am very weak, but I am on the road to recovery. I didn’t think I would make it. I had a very rough time."

She paid tribute to the doctors and nurses who looked after her during her two-and-a-half week stint in hospital in the most difficult of circumstances: "They were super."

"I could see absolutely nobody. The people who were looking after me, they had to come into the room wearing masks and everything. Everything had to be binned after they looked after me, and if I wanted someone to do something for me, they would have to put on all the gear again."

Kitty said she doesn’t know how she picked up the virus: "I wasn’t out of the house and anyone I came into contact with it didn’t have any symptoms."

A keen gardener, one of the things Kitty is most looking forward to is getting back into her vegetable patch. She had planted cabbage seeds before she was hospitalised and, sadly, these haven’’t survived.

Kitty is determined to get back to it in a few weeks time when she has built up her strength.

In just two-and-a-half weeks’ time, Kitty will celebrate her 80th birthday. There will be no party celebrations due to the virus lockdown but she is hoping in a few months’’ time, the whole family can come together to mark what has been a difficult year for them.

Six months ago, she lost her husband Peter. They were married 56 years.

For two-and-half weeks, she didn’t think she would make it out to see her four children, Pat, Colm, Kevin and Aideen; seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson again.

But she did — and she wants to make sure as many people as possible can do so too.

"I am proud to be Irish," she said.

"I am so proud of that. I think Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Simon Harris, and Dr Tony Holohan are doing a brilliant job. They are a credit to this country. It is so important that everyone adheres to the restrictions. We will get through this is everyone pulls together."

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