When The Week Junior Science+Nature recently interviewed Professor of Astrophysics at Edinburgh University, and the first female Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, she openly spoke about the impact long Covid has had on her life and work. The condition affects her breathing and makes conversations difficult. Before contracting long Covid, Heyman’s job involved socialising, jotting theories onto a whiteboard and sparking ideas off of other scientists, but now she is housebound. This hasn’t stopped her though. Heymans reads and draws on her colleagues’ ideas, communicates via email and has one-on-one conversations with people virtually. She hasn't given up research saying, “I'm writing a paper right now. It's just the way I'm doing it is different.” The scientist says, "it's important to show everyone that people with long Covid are not 'lazy' or 'work-shy' which we hear all too often." 

Long Covid affects people of all ages, both adults and children, and the charity Long Covid Kids (LCK) was set up to advocate for young people living with long Covid. One person who receives help from LCK is Victoria Priest, a home educated 14-year-old who loves astronomy, playing the cello and reading. She says her favourite thing about astronomy is “the mystery behind it all. With being ill, I was watching YouTube one day and my interest just grew.” 

Victoria describes having long Covid as, “A lot of pain in random places at random times… [which] has stopped me from doing a lot of things I used to do and loved”. For two years, she couldn’t play her cello, but recently she started playing again thanks to her cello teacher Merel van der Knoop, who restrung a ukulele with cello strings and adapted music pieces for Victoria to play. 

Merel is also the musical director of the LCK Choir, and is vocal about the need for better support for people with long Covid. She says, “there are 62,000 young people in the UK with long Covid [however there has been] no development in new treatment. We desperately need clinical trials and paediatric research… We’re more than four years in and there is nothing for long Covid. No new treatment centres. Some of the paediatric long Covid hubs are actually closing down.” Merel also has long Covid, and in a recent social media post described it leaving her feeling like she had been in a “boxing match”. 

People all over the world are living with these and many more long Covid symptoms. This includes parents of children who are trying to help their children grow and learn while having these battles with illness.

One parent in this position is Dr Binita Kane, an NHS doctor who spent six months seeking NHS treatment for her daughter, Jasmin, who has long Covid. During this period, Jasmin had to start using a wheelchair and her dad stopped working to take care of her and her sister. Eventually, Dr Kane took Jasmin for treatment in Germany because she says the mother and daughter were receiving “no answers” from the NHS. Jasmin had a type of drug therapy in Germany usually used in adults rather than children, and although this treatment did come with risks, Dr Kane said over 6-8 months, Jasmin got better.

As well as helping her own child, Dr Kane works with other children experiencing long Covid symptoms in the UK. Last month, The Guardian published an article about 12-year-old Toby who has long Covid. The headline states that more than 110,000 children in England and Scotland are still suffering from long Covid. Toby has received some treatment from Dr Kane, but he’s yet to make much of a recovery, and his parents are concerned about how long Covid is impacting his education as currently he is only doing two or three 10-20 minute sessions of learning a day. In the article, Toby’s family say they have been fortunate financially to have been able to take time off work to help him do school work from home and also pay for him to have private medical treatment. Toby’s family say charities like LCK have helped them by calling for greater awareness, understanding and action; and linking them up with people who are going through similar challenges. They are calling on the UK Government to provide more funding to charities like LCK so that they can help more children like Victoria, Jasmin and Toby. 

Contracting long Covid is not Heymans first experience with serious illness. As a teenager, she was struck down with glandular fever and contracted Myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (MECFS) aged 16. To keep up her studies, she taught herself chemistry, physics and maths A-Level from bed and says, “it was the thing that kept me going… Even though I couldn't go out and see my friends, I could still develop my knowledge”. 

Now, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, says supporting children with special needs and providing them with opportunities can be pivotal in maximising their chances at success. She has seen first-hand the positive impacts teaching astronomy can have for younger people. After her children returned home from a school trip, she had an idea that telescopes could be installed at Scotland’s residential outdoor learning centres. She says, “The centres are in these fantastically remote locations, so the skies are really dark. It’s a perfect place to do astronomy.” Her own fascination with astronomy was sparked on a trip to Scotland in her early teens. Heymans says, “It wasn't until I came on holiday to Scotland, and went out one night and saw that there were loads of stars” that she became transfixed by the science and beauty of the night sky. She adds, “I haven't lost that skill today.” The night before our interview, she was out lying down on a blanket in her garden looking at the stars. She beams, “It's so beautiful just imagining what's out there, your imagination can go wild.” 

Heymans’ favourite thing about space is time travel. She says “when you look up into the night sky, you are seeing the universe as it was in the past”. It takes time for light to travel from one part of the universe to another and it travels at a fixed speed. For example, the sun is so far away that when we look at it, it has taken eight minutes to reach us. So, when we look at the sun we're seeing it as it was eight minutes ago. “The millions of stars that we can see in the night sky are light years away, and the galaxies that I can see through my telescope are billions of light years away. I love the fact that just by lying in my backyard and looking up at the night sky, I'm looking back in time, and I find that super exciting”, says Heymans. 

Heymans says the secret to excelling in the science world is being able to speak the language of science which is maths. She says, “There’s a misconception that maths is somehow harder than anything else at school. I would encourage people to rise to the challenge of maths. It's really easy when you find something difficult to just give up on, but maths is one of the most important things to work on at school because from that everything else flows... Maths is the core of it all.” 

On being the first woman to hold the title, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Heymans said, “It's crazy that in the 2020s, we still have first women. That shouldn't be… but things are changing and I'm really proud to be part of that change. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what your background is, what your gender is. Science is for everyone. It doesn't care about your background. It's an exciting thing to do, and it's fun to be able to share that with everyone.” 

Throughout her battle with long Covid and in all of her scientific work, Heymans says all of her energy is dedicated to astronomy. Her advice to others living with long Covid is to “accept what your limitations are, adapt your life to be as full as it can be…”, keep learning and “pushing towards your dreams”.

To any young people or adults, this could include parents, who would like to share their experiences of Covid, whether it's being off school, feeling poorly or isolated, get in touch with The Week Junior Science+Nature for the chance to have your thoughts published. Contact us via email at hello@science-nature.co.uk