This month’s health and lifestyle column from Corinne Yeadon, of the Being Better private therapy practice in Skipton

LAST month my column focused on the need for breaks to restore and recharge. I heeded my own advice, broke with tradition and took time off for this very purpose.

Unfortunately, the obligatory fridge magnet was not my only souvenir from sunny Spain. On my return to blighty my insistence that my sore throat and voice like a bag of rusty nails was a consequence of air con or being on a plane became more difficult to reconcile. A thunderous headache, aching limbs of a fell runner and nausea that can only be generated from drinking school milk in the 1970s rapidly followed.

Given there were plans and arrangements made I felt it only fair to test for Covid and sure enough I was stricken, and let me tell you third time was not a charm, nor like a bit of hayfever as I had been led to believe.

Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t 2020 Covid, but nonetheless pretty debilitating and like a lingering guest who refused to call a taxi. I have to confess to bawling like a toddler at the unfairness of it all on numerous occasions, I had protected time for my own self care only to have it stolen by Covid.

Just as I began to turn a corner family members fell prey to it, dropping like dominoes, including my clinically vulnerable daughter. Thankfully after a bit of a rigmarole, anti-virals were secured and prevented what she refers to as “that stinking virus” getting a grip.

Caring for others when you are far from 100 per cent does not support the healing and recovery process but is not generally a choice. My so-called restorative break then led into time off work sick not only for my health but to look after loved ones.

This has acted as a cautionary tale to me, I stand by last month's column urging the need to take breaks, maybe if reserves had been higher there would have been less chance of contracting a virus?