Catherine Tyldesley ’s husband and five-year-old son have both tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies – and she believes they may have had the virus more than six months ago.
Photographer Tom Pitfield and little Alfie both fell ill on a family holiday to Dubai, with Tom ending up being hospitalised with breathing difficulties.
Neither have been poorly since and now Cath thinks they contracted coronavirus on the flight in November – months before experts believe the disease arrived in the UK.
Cath, 36, posted on Instagram : “We have just got our test results back.
"I thought Tom and Alfie had it in November and nobody quite believed it. It turns out I was right."
She added: “This ugly little b*****d of a disease has been flying around longer than we have been told.”
Cath and her family’s flight was delayed for 27 hours – before a passenger fell ill and collapsed on it.
After arriving at their hotel, Tom became ill in the night and Cath had to call an ambulance.
She stayed in the hotel room with distraught Alfie while Tom went to hospital alone. He was discharged with antibiotics and Cath spent the holiday nursing both of them, as Alfie fell ill a few days later.
A source said: “Cath just thought it was bad luck when Tom and Alfie fell ill.
"But when the symptoms of Covid became more widely known this year, she suspected they had had it as Tom also had no sense of taste or smell."
The source added: “After her Instagram post she has been contacted by the families of other passengers on the same flight as they also fell ill.
"She knows they could have had it at a later date without symptoms but it seems like a huge coincidence.”
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