Martha Lee from Devon, England, an avid traveler and hiker, explains to Sara Stewart how having long COVID has affected – but not stopped – her ability to move around in the world. 

“I’ve been traveling solo and with friends since I was 17. I like to save up money and time, then head off somewhere for a month. I exclusively stay in hostels, because you can always find someone who wants to do the same things.

“The most incredible hike I’ve done was the Tour du Mont Blanc, the 100-mile-ish route through France and southern Italy. I lived in Guatemala for just under a year, working with an NGO, which was amazing. I climbed Santiaguito, which is an active volcano there. 

“I got back from a trip to Mexico the day before the stay-at-home order was announced for COVID. I had COVID quite a few times, but the one that triggered the long COVID was in August 2021. I wasn’t in the hospital, but I was very, very ill for a few weeks. It took months to be able to do stairs, or to actually socialize. 

Enjoying the sun in the Algarve, despite the long COVID symptoms © Martha Lee

“Now I’ve got to the point where I can walk on a flat surface for up to half an hour, very slowly. My ‘battery,’ as they call it in the clinics, is much smaller. If you overextend yourself, you’ll be ill for a week. Brain fog means I struggle sometimes to find a particular word. I was working as a management consultant but I lost my job, because I couldn’t manage a team. I can’t absorb information the same way; my memory is rubbish.