Rory Lawson is nearly back to 100% after being knocked off his feet for nearly a fortnight by the “relentless” coronavirus.
A week after picking up a small cough and initially thinking nothing of it, the 39-year-old had been put through the mill with one serious symptom following another, breathing difficulties, muscle pains and a fever all contributing to extreme fatigue.
After turning the corner and beginning his road to recovery, Lawson took to Twitter to share his experiences, and is keen to underline the fact that it isn’t just the elderly and vulnerable who can be affected by the virus.
“It doesn’t care whether you’re young or old, fit or healthy. It’s certainly not something that youngsters are able to completely avoid,” the former Scotland captain-turned broadcaster said, speaking to Guinness Six Nations.
“I can hold my hands up and say that prior to it I had limited fear of the virus. I’m not somebody who’s ill typically, have got a pretty strong immune system and don’t typically pick up common colds, flus or bugs flying around – I’ve been pretty lucky.
“When the news broke around the virus originally, we were told that most people will suffer very mild symptoms and there will be a lot of people who may be carriers but may not even know they’ve got the virus.
“I certainly didn’t view it as something that would put any sort of fear into me.
“Having had common flu a few times and bad colds, normally when I’ve been beyond the fever on that front, a couple of days later I’m back to exercising, but with this it was just relentless.
“As one of the symptoms died away, more came in. It was the uncertainty around how long it would really last and what was coming next.”
The shock of the rapid deterioration of his own condition was made worse by the affect the virus had on his partner India and four-month old son Freddie.
Thankfully, after a brief scare when Freddie exhibited breathing problems last week, all three seem to have pulled through the worst of it, and Lawson is now keen to urge the population to take heed of the disease’s dangers.
“People in their 20s have shared their experiences with me and some who were a week or five days behind where I was were grateful to have heard and shared the experiences that I had been through, so they could anticipate what was coming,” he continued.
“It is pretty scary when you get it and are having breathing differences and feeling totally floored with no energy, that fever, the sweats, the shivers.
“There’s only limited information and even second-hand information is hard to come by, so I was pleased to be able to offer people advice and hopefully put their minds at rest, as well as warding off those who were perhaps getting a bit too comfortable and living their lives as if nothing has changed.”
With 31 international caps to his name, the former scrum-half certainly knows the importance of teamwork when it comes to toppling a foe.
And Lawson is hoping that the unity that has been on display across the world in combating the pandemic – especially within the rugby community – will live long after the virus is tackled.
“It’s something that we almost take for granted in rugby. It’s one whereby I think that the rugby community is amazing,” he added.
“Whether it’s around illness – from a Scottish perspective you think recently of Doddie Weir and Tom Smith – getting behind two guys who are literally scrapping for their lives.
“I have to say that what is really heartening is seeing the global coming-togetherness. From a UK perspective, it seems that most people are doing the right thing and coming together and backing the NHS, doing the right thing and supporting where they can.”
