NEWS

Kate’s Coronavirus lockdown blog: How life has changed from before the coronavirus lockdown started

Hello my name is Kate Brackley and I am writing this blog to explain what it feels like to be in a lockdown as part of the Coronavirus that has spread from China to all around the world dominating all over the news channels on your television screens.

This will be a series of blogs on different areas that myself and other people are currently going through and what it feels like coping / not coping in this difficult period.

For many people finding activities to do is very difficult during this time through the lockdown period as we are completely unsure when we will be finished with this. For many of us having things to do during the day to keep us from being bored is hard enough.

Before the government announced the lockdown I was fine and my life back then was going very well I was independent and doing things with my support and coping with everyday life and enjoying myself, but no one could prepare you for the new changes that was going on behind closed doors. When I learnt that China had a problem fighting coronavirus I thought it was only going to be just China that would face this but when I learnt that it would take over the world I then started panicking and I was scared as to what would happen and then the government locked us all down in the UK.

This is what I felt like before this started I guess this would be similar for most people this day and age particularly people that are now classed as a shielded group the over 70’s and also the underlying health problems too. The biggest problem would be for people like myself and other people that I know and other people with learning disabilities and autism they would properly be the hardest hit particularly those who have not been so lucky and have no one to turn to for support.

When I learnt that I had to move out of my lovely cosy flat to back living with my parents at the time it felt like I was having a step backwards, but looking back I think now I did the right thing as I wanted to be safe and my parents were only looking out for me. Yes I had to make the biggest sacrifice in not support but I was told by parents that I could video chat and that I could see him 2 metres away from the parents house which made me feel pleased about and I was really excited about that.

Having to adapt to what the government says about social distancing and taking one piece of exercise daily at first got very tough this would be the same for many other people out there and to also having to adapt to having certain rules of the parents home took its time too only one person to go food shopping and to make the food last and too wash everything down so thoroughly at first was the most weirdest thing to do.

I have learnt during this time on lockdown that we must not take our lives for granted and that we have only one life to lead and that we must be so grateful for the people that still have to work at the NHS and also the key workers and the nurses and the doctors that have put others before themselves so people can be treated for this virus that’s why I do the clapping for the NHS on a Thursday night with parents and also on 28 April I did the 1 minute silence just to give thanks for these people as otherwise we would not have had our current prime minister to pull through this, he battled for a few weeks with this nasty virus and as he is our main leader to tackle this problem head on.