A YORK mum is doing a virtual walk from Land’s End to John o’ Groats to raise money for York’s ICU which saved her mother from Covid.
Vicky Rennison’s mum Linda spent three months at York Hospital after becoming seriously ill with Covid in January 2021.
Linda, 66, spent time on a ventilator and had to have a tracheostomy – where surgeons make a hole through the front of the neck and into the windpipe – to help her breathe.
The darkest time came when the family were told that Linda might not make it.
Mum-of-three Vicky said: “We got to the point where doctors rang us to tell us that they didn’t know whether she was going to make it through the next 24 hours.”
But Linda did – and she has been determined to fight back after her ordeal, says Vicky, mum to Lewis, 23, Tommy, nine, and Lottie, seven.
After three months at York Hospital, Linda was transferred, still bed-bound, to Nelsons Court rehab centre in Tadcaster Road. “She was clapped out of York Hospital by all the staff,” says Vicky.
At that point, Linda was unable to walk and was just recovering her voice and learning how to eat solid food again.
Vicky’s mum and dad: Linda and Paul
Vicky said: “Mum has done so well, learning to walk again, learning to eat again.”
She was discharged from rehab after two weeks. “She was determined to get out for my little girl Lottie’s seventh birthday,” says Vicky.
To say thank you to the ICU staff for saving her mum’s life, Vicky is fundraising for the unit by completing an 874-mile walk, the distance from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. She has been doing this virtually – using an app, End to End, to chart her progress.
She began last April and has an year to complete the distance. She has just over 50 miles left.
It has been a challenge clocking up the miles with bringing up her children, working part-time as a teaching assistant at St Lawrence’s primary school and running her own family and wedding photography business.
She said: “I’ve been walking all over York, out to Rufforth, around Bishopthorpe and even along the Pocklington Canal.
“I just want to say thank you for saving Mum’s life. I am over the moon that she is still here.”
Vicky on one of her walks in York
Linda is still being treated for Long Covid symptoms – she is still struggling with her breathing, her vocal chords and uses a stick or a walking frame.
But she says she is determined to get stronger. Linda said: “I’m getting along OK, I still have my walking frame and get very tired. But I seem to be walking better. When I woke up in the ICU I couldn’t walk or talk and it was very frightening.”
And she is full of praise for Vicky’s efforts. She said: “I’m so proud of her. It has been hard for her doing this while looking after Tommy and Lottie and her work and business.”
Vicky hopes to raise at least £1,000 for York Hospital ICU – you can donate to her effort via this link: https://gofund.me/431935e5
Vicky added: “Can I also say a massive thank you to everyone who supported me and my family when mum was in ICU and thank you to all my fellow walkers who keep me company on my travels .
“But most importantly I want to thank staff in ICU who saved mum’s life and worked so hard through the pandemic and had to put up with me phoning four times a day, all hours.”
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