Jet-setting flight attendant used to touching down in party capitals like Las Vegas is grounded and frequently bedbound by long Covid
A jet-setting flight attendant who has touched down in party capitals ranging from Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro to Las Vegas USA has been grounded by long Covid so severe that she is frequently bedbound.
Working as cabin crew on short and long-haul flights from June 2012, Katherine Francis, 29, loved seeing the world and meeting new people in exciting destinations across the globe.
Forced to quit work in March 2022 after what she describes as her “worst crash yet,” Katherine, who lives in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, with her stay-at-home mum, Anne-Marie Frances, and firefighter dad, Michael Frances, both 63, said: “I thought at 29 I would be settling down with someone, maybe having children and exploring the world.
“I had dreams of what my life would be and that has been thrown up into the air after catching Covid.”
Reflecting on her cabin crew role – which she returned to in 2019 after three years working in property – and saw her travel to places as diverse as South Korea and Vienna, she said: “I loved everything about the lifestyle.
“No two months were the same and no two flights were the same.
Little did Katherine know that when she touched down at Gatwick Airport in March 2020, it would be the last time she did so as a flight attendant.
At first, she was furloughed, before being made redundant in August 2020, after which she found an internship with a London PR agency – always hoping to one day return to her life in the skies.
She added: “Two days later, I had the worst headache I had ever experienced and then the next day, I had this heavy pressure on my chest.”
Confirmed as Covid a few days later, Katherine’s symptoms progressed.
She added: “We had to call paramedics out at one point because I was struggling to breathe so much. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest.”
After three weeks of isolation with a high temperature, Katherine started to feel better and tried to get stuck into her new job.
Slowly, as the weeks went on, Katherine said the “warning signs” began to appear that she was not recovering normally, including an internal tremor, fatigue and back pain.
And by January 2021, her dry, “barking” cough had returned with a vengeance.
After being treated, Katherine was sent home – but the symptoms kept returning.
She said: “By March, my cough had become really angry and my heart rate was really fast.
Katherine added: “I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was so drained and confused.
“I often felt like I was dismissed by medical professionals because I was young and told that I would be fine.”
She said: “I ended up taking two months off work, but every time I tried to return, I had to leave again. I was just getting sicker and sicker.”
Simply walking became a challenge.
She added: “I wasn’t living anymore, I was just existing.
“I couldn’t go out because I was in pain and even with the vaccines, I was terrified of catching the virus again – knowing what it had done to me the first time.”
She said: “My legs started to become really weak, so physically weak that I couldn’t walk.
“My left leg started to feel like a dead weight, but then it moved to my right leg too – which was probably the most terrifying symptom. It was debilitating.
Prescribed anti-histamines in June this year, on top of taking beta-blockers and using an inhaler, she also learned about fatigue management which, amongst other things, involves taking three to four 20-minute naps every day
Also taking a host of supplements such as iron, B12, folic acid and vitamin D, Katherine noticed an improvement.
Katherine added: “But then I crashed back down to square one and it was debilitating.”
Last week, Katherine managed to muster the energy to go to her best friend’s wedding – but not without consequences.
She continued: “I got myself a walking stick and managed to get through it – but it left me recovering in bed for three days.”
With no real treatment yet available for long Covid, Katherine, who is single, feels concerned about the future.
She added: “I thought I would be settling down and doing more – but this is so unpredictable. I never know what I will be like from one day to the next.”
Katherine is now harnessing the energy she does have to spread awareness about long Covid and push for more help for sufferers.
She said: “People like me deserve to get our lives back. We shouldn’t be an afterthought. We are young professionals who could be contributing to the economy and living our lives and we can’t.
“We need to be talking about this and doing something about it.”
- Katherine is helping participate in an app launched by Imperial College London and Vodafone Foundation’s DreamLab free app, which uses crowdsourced research to help find a solution to beat the long-lasting symptoms of long Covid. Download DreamLab for free now in the App Store for iOS or Play Store for Android.