Well-known Dublin journalist and TV producer Yvonne Kinsella admitted she had "dictated a will" over a WhatsApp voice message on the way to hospital over fears she'd die from coronavirus.
The 51-year-old grandmother, who suffers from asthma and an autoimmune disease, spent two weeks battling the cruel virus in hospital.
Speaking on Monday morning, she recalled lying in bed before leaving for hospital fearing death.
She told Pat Kenny on Newstalk: "The week of March 23rd, it all started for me. Monday I had indigestion... on the Wednesday I got this feeling, I couldn't speak and it was like a truck had parked on my chest - that's possibly the only way of describing it.
"That morning I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't speak - and then it went."
Yvonne said she refused to call for an ambulance - a decision she would regret just hours later.
"On Thursday I woke up and I remember lying in the bed going 'I'm dying here'.
"The breathing was very shallow, I hadn't the energy to even turn in the bed".
"I remember thinking 'if I'm going to die tonight I don't want the kids to wake up, I don't want anyone to hear me going"
"I just went down the stairs and I said to my husband 'get me to the hospital now love'."
As her and husband John made their way to the hospital, Yvonne spoke out her will in a voicenote and sent it to her husband.
"I had said to John 'go out to the kitchen' - we had bought wills about two years ago but we never wrote them.
"He gave me a pen and I hadn't even the energy to do anything - so I just signed it and I put the date on it.
"He drove me to the hospital and as we drove, I dictated the will into a WhatsApp voice message.
"And I just said to him 'go home and before you go to bed I want you to write it up so it's a viable will'."
Speaking about her symptoms, Yvonne said she had an "indescribable" headache as well as a specific COVID cough which can't be confused with any other.
After 13 days in hospital, she bravely came out the other side at the end of March despite nearly ending up in intensive care.
