A Blue Mountains woman who contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic's early stages has warned of the long-lasting effects of the virus and urged members of the community to get vaccinated.
Liz Smith, who lives in Lawson, tested positive to COVID in late March 2020, having caught the disease from her daughter who had returned to Australia after living in London. Their initially happy reunion - a matter of days before the Australian borders closed and hotel quarantine was made mandatory - took a frightening turn when Ms Smith's daughter tested positive on the second day she was at home, with Ms Smith's positive result coming three days later.
"It was pretty scary because it was early days back then, and nobody knew much about it in Australia," said Ms Smith. "We were just looking at all these horrific things on the TV happening in Europe and America.
"I've never experienced such fatigue. I basically just had to go bed, with aches and pains. And then I got really awful flu symptoms - funny head and nausea - and then my lungs got really bad. I get asthma, and I ended up having the worst asthma I've ever had in my life. I was put on a lot of medication and had to take six weeks off work."
Ms Smith's lingering symptoms, including a cough and low energy, persisted until the end of 2020. Even now, 18 months after she was diagnosed, she still has problems with her sense of smell.
This is a very serious, scary disease, and not like normal flu. You can go downhill very quickly.
"I can tell my lungs are not what they were," she added, "not drastically damaged, but a bit under par. I'm just going to have to watch it. I'm 63, so it wasn't a great thing to get."
Having received her first dose of Astra Zeneca and with the second due soon, Ms Smith is a passionate advocate for vaccination.
"This is a very serious, scary disease, and not like normal flu," she said. "You can go downhill very quickly and I would recommend everyone get vaxed because you really don't want this. There's long-term health issues for both young and old people."
Ms Smith works as a community development worker at Mountains Outreach Community Service in Hazelbrook. She has observed that attitudes to vaccination in the Blue Mountains vary.
"In the circle I move in, people are responsible and are getting their vaccinations, but I know there is an element in the community that is hesitant, and then another element that is possibly anti-vaccination, and that does concern me. It's probably mixed, like everywhere."
In the time since Ms Smith and her daughter endured COVID together, her daughter has moved to Sydney's Inner West to work in health. So yet another reunion is on the cards once the current lockdown eventually lifts.
"I'm really looking forward to gathering with family and friends," she said, "that's the biggest thing."