Date: 16-02-2021

Your NHS number: Xxxxxxxxx

Dear RUSSELL DAWKINS,

We are writing to you as you have previously been identified as someone thought to be clinically extremely vulnerable and at high risk of becoming very unwell if you catch COVID-19. We wrote to you last month advising you to follow shielding guidance until 21 February. 

We are now extending that guidance and advising you to shield until 31 March 2021. We will write to you again in mid-March with further advice.

Whilst the national lockdown has been effective and cases of COVID-19 are now falling, the levels of infection in the community remain high and the virus continues to pose a high risk to people across the country. The risk remains particularly high for those considered clinically extremely vulnerable. Therefore, the Government strongly advises you to continue to follow the shielding measures that were introduced in January to help you protect yourself. More information on the guidance and the support available to you can be found on GOV.​UK, or in your previous letter dated 7 January 2021 if you received one.

You are advised to stay at home as much as possible, although you can still go outdoors carefully to exercise or to attend health appointments. You are strongly encouraged to work from home if you can. If you cannot work from home then you should not attend work.

Whilst you are strongly advised to follow these extra precautionary shielding measures to help keep yourself safe, this remains guidance, not the law. You must, however, follow the lockdown rules that apply to everyone.

Please make sure your GP has your most up to date contact details, including your home address and, if possible, a personal email address, so that we can contact you quickly in the event that the guidance changes in the future. 

This letter can be used as evidence for your employer and the Department for Work and Pensions to show that you cannot work outside your home until at least 31 March 2021, including for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) purposes. 

If you need support to help you follow the guidance, especially if you are unable to arrange this yourself or through friends, family, or other support networks, your local council may be able to help. You can contact your council and register for support or request priority access to a supermarket delivery slot at the Shielding Support website: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support. If you already have priority access to a supermarket delivery slot that will continue – you do not need to do anything further.

You are advised not to go to shops or pharmacies. Instead try to shop online, ask family or friends to collect shopping for you or get help with food and medicine deliveries from NHS Volunteer Responders. 

It is also really important to continue to look after your mental health. The Every Mind Matters website is accessible for advice and practical steps that you can take to support your wellbeing and manage your mental health during this pandemic. If you or someone you care for are experiencing a mental health crisis, we urge you to make contact with a local health professional immediately. 

COVID-19 vaccinations

Clinically extremely vulnerable adults are receiving priority access to vaccination against COVID-19 before the general population. The vaccine is likely to make an important contribution towards protecting you from COVID-19. People are being contacted about vaccinations by the NHS, but if you have not been offered a vaccination, we are now asking you to come forward to book a vaccination. 

The easiest way to arrange a vaccination is through the national booking service which can be accessed at https://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination. The system allows patients to choose a time slot and location that suits them. Anyone unable to book online can call 119 free of charge, anytime between 7am and 11pmseven days a week. If a suitable and convenient slot is not available, you can also call your GP practice. 

Even if you have had both doses of the vaccine, you should continue to follow this shielding guidance as we continue to assess the impact of vaccination among all groups. The people you live with should continue to follow the public health rules and guidance as long as they are in place, regardless of whether you or they have received the vaccine.

We will continue to update you as the situation changes and, once again, we thank you for your efforts to keep yourself and others safe.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Hancock

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Robert Jenrick

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

Well it’s definitely not over, is it? Not by a long way. I’m not even supposed to go out. 😳

My ‘ routine’ in the morning includes being in a standing chair ( where I’m strapped into a standing position ) for an hour.
To do this, my regular chair has to be taken outside to my terrace, and swapped for the Standing chair, which is kept outside under cover.

This morning though I needed to adjust a brake on my chair, so I asked my help to take the wheels off and turn it upside down, and then spin it around so I can reach the right part with a spanner. I can’t bend, so the only way to do it is with one arm from a lying position in bed. Having finished that, my help said ‘ it’s a bit dirty, so I’ll brush the mud off it ‘
I suggested she do that outside ( obviously ) to make less mess.
Ultimately the chair had to go outside anyway, because it was being swapped for the other one.
Get this for logic though –

She CARRIED the wheelchair ( minus the wheels ) outside, brushed off the mud, then CARRIED the chair back inside, then put the wheels on, then pushed it outside again…
I watch with a mixture of amusement and complete dumbfounded’ness as she does this kind of thing. I mean I love her to bits for her general dedication to me… but sometimes I do wonder how she’s managed to stay, well, stay alive..

Jabbed!

Turns out that my letter was en route, which had allowed me to get an appointment.
Very straightforward all of it.
I came home and cranked for an hour, having forgotten to take it easy. … I definitely don’t have any weird side effects, though I slept deeply last night ( which I don’t do very often )

So all good then!

And I’m getting the vaccine!
Tomorrow, at the Stoop. That’s the Harlequins rugby club in normal times.
That’s good. Actually I just filled in a form ( having not had a letter yet ) online, and bingo! I’m in.
Both my mum and Dad in Wales have had theirs – important given they live in the most COVID deadly part of Wales – more people have died in their locality than have in whole countries … 🤦‍♂️

As it’s both their birthdays this week it’s been a good ‘gift’ – the vaccine, I’d say.

And I got my Triride back from Italy yesterday – oh wow it’s good. I went out for a spin and it’s actually better than ever. It’s had lots of parts replaced, and the software updated so that it’s more economical on the battery, meaning I can ride in Eco mode and go further. That’s great, because quite often I wonder whether I’ll have enough charge to get home from places…. and now I’ve a few more miles in the tank.
So thank you Triride Italia, and Nathan that has dealt with it, and also to Colin Flounders, who did loads to help me with it. Tbh I can’t thank these guys enough – both of them are in wheelchairs themselves, yet manage to do stuff that ‘ ought’ to be impossible for them.

Right, arm cranking time again!

Just thinking about this pandemic, from start to now. When it began I was in a relationship with a girl from near Johannesburg… you might say a South African variant..

Now I’m going out with a lady from Sevenoaks… you might say a Kent variant ..

As for the prevalence of the Brazilian variant in the world of online dating..?? …… well … that would be telling ! 😳😂

I’m currently on the Ghost Train to Sevenoaks…. only me in the carriage again…

It’s tricky without my Triride. My substitute ‘ cheap ‘ replacement doesn’t have enough power to even get me up the ramp onto the train. The guards always seem a little bemused that I can’t get up a 5 foot ramp and need a push. Anyway they do always oblige… obviously, or else the train wouldn’t be able to leave with me only half on. I do wonder at what point ‘ health and safety’ will forbid them to give me a little push. …

But after 6 weeks I get my Tri back this week! Gawd I’ve missed it, but definitely stayed positive. How? By exercising a LOT. I’ve been cranking for 2 hours a day 5/6 days a week. It’s losing the weight borne of not being able to exercise properly for 7 years that gives me the positivity. After ‘ only ‘ a month I can see glimpses of ‘ the old me ‘ ( physique ) coming back. That makes me happy! I reckon give it another month and I’ll be almost there. Obviously the exercise is accompanied by not eating much. I don’t have a thing about food so it’s not hard… and as time has gone on my appetite has diminished, so Win Win.

Almost there… and with the lovely Lizzy .. x

And again a massive big huge thank you to my homies that come to my aid when I can’t do stuff.
This time around in particular to Rob Stainsby, Toby St, and Marky P.

Such top fellas… I’d be otherwise stuck !
❤️

I’ve just listened to a really good book, one recommended by a buddy of mine whom I saw last week ( socially distanced obviously )

It’s called 12 rules for Life, and has had a lot of critical acclaim I found out.

Whilst all 12 rules seem make an awful lot of sense, there was one which keeps appearing in my thoughts. That rule was Be friends with people that want the best for you.

I then found myself going through people in my head that I regard as my friends. It was quite remarkable actually. All of those who I regard as genuine friends I could easily assign with the ‘ he/she ( definitely ) wants the best for me ‘
And when I thought of people that I regard as acquaintances rather than friends, and asked myself whether those people ( genuinely and definitely in my opinion ) wanted the best for me, every single time time it was a straightforward no that I didn’t have to ponder.

Likewise it was the same in reverse. For many people I know, when I ask that question it’s an immediate ‘ yes, I always want the best for this person’ but for others when I ask that of myself I realise that the same sentiments don’t exist ( and not because I feel an ill will towards them, but just that actually I just don’t think of them in that way ).
We all know I think, which people in our lives, upon hearing about some misfortune or downfall ( possibly even their death ) we’d be very upset or concerned for ( devastated even if it was their death ) and which people we wouldn’t have those reactions about. That’s not to say we ever have to voice it out loud, but we DO know.
What’s very useful though, is to think of people whom you’ve perhaps wondered about often, that you haven’t heard from for a long time, and then to ask yourself ‘ does that person want the best for me ?’ And again there are those who you are definitely a yes, with the rest being a no, and there never seems to be anyone that you have to deliberate over.

And it’s a really really good exercise in working out who is important in your life, who you should spend your time on, and who ‘ doesn’t merit’ your time in the same way.

It’s not as though it’s possible for you to ‘ be friends’ with EVERYONE, and similarly it’s not possible that EVERYONE cares about you.

Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Since my thinking has returned to ( close to ) normal, I have no explanation for my few month lapse in brain power.
Ive just had the results back from an antibody blood test that I paid for, which said I had not had COVID.
I’d put my brain fog down to Long COVID… but evidently it’s not that, and in any case it’s pretty much gone.

Hopefully my usual level of ( hilarious ) posts will resume before long?! 😳😂

Tbh if I had contracted it it could only have been from online date(s) pre Lizzy… as I just haven’t been close enough to anyone else since this all began.
Mind you I suppose I could have had it in say March… and not had symptoms… and then had Long COVID ( but you don’t normally have the combination of asymptomatic infection and them Long COVID ) and then lost all my antibodies…. well who knows!?