VULNERABLE people have been forced to shut themselves away from the outside world while deadly coronavirus has wreaked havoc across the country.

Jordan O’Brien is among those who have been shielding. He suffers with a chronic lung disease called bronchiectasis, cerebral palsy, and brittle bones, meaning he has to take extra measures not to catch Covid-19. 

He hasn’t been able to see family and friends – or even leave his home in Eldene – since March 2020. 

The 28-year-old said: “I often suffer from chest infections and have spent most of my life requiring oxygen and I have been on life support in intensive care five times in my lifetime. I also have no swallow reflex so I have to have small tubes inserted down my nose to my throat to remove my secretions every day just so I can breathe safely.

“I stopped going out at the beginning of March 2020 as I was very worried about catching Covid. I’ve probably only left the house five times since then and once to have my first vaccine at Steam Museum.”

Labradoodles Flower and Holly have helped keep Jordan company. 

He said: “I’ve found shielding very difficult, I’ve felt very depressed not being able to mix with my family in my own home. I’ve felt scared that my life would never be the same as before. I’ve missed hanging out with my friends, I’ve missed going to my volunteering job. I’ve found it very hard not being able to hug my mum for a year too.

“It just felt like Groundhog Day being in my room.

“I felt scared too, I was scared about catching Covid and ending up seriously ill in ICU again.”

Jordan once spent time in the intensive care unit at John Radcliffe Hospital with meningitis and was in a coma for three months. 

He sometimes struggles to get out of bed because he is in pain. He can’t walk very far, has to sit down every 20 minutes and has to take nebulisers multiple times a day. 

But he is hopeful with the roadmap the government has laid out that he can soon leave his home and live life as normally as possible again. 

“I’m over the moon that my life will be back to normality,” Jordan told the Adver.
I’ll be able to go back to volunteering, and I’ll be able to mix with my family, I can’t wait. I’ll have my freedom.

“I don’t think I could’ve done this without my amazing loving family beside me, comforting me, being positive with me too.”