A healthy, gym-going woman has warned 'not to take any chances' in catching the coronavirus after she was hospitalised with pneumonia.
Tara Jane Langston, 39, filmed the message from an intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital in west London where she was admitted last Friday and tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
The mother-of-two made the clip for her work colleagues and it has since gone viral.
During the clip she describes the horrifying experience of being treated for pneumonia.
She said: "I'm in the intensive care unit and I can't breathe without this. They've had to sew that into my artery.
"I've got a cannula, another cannula and a catheter. I'm actually ten times better than what I was before. I've lost count of the days.
"If anyone still smokes, put the cigarettes down because I'm telling you now you need your f***ing lungs and, please, none of you take any chances, I mean it, because if it gets really bad than you're going to end up here.
"My body is fighting this so once again don't take any chances."
As Tara speaks, she can be seen gasping for breath and struggling to speak due to the lack of oxygen.
She first begun feeling unwell 11 days ago after a holiday to Krakow, Poland, with her husband and two daughters.
She was first diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics but rushed to hospital after her health deteriorated last week.
Husband, 34-year-old Richard, said her first symptoms were stabbing pains in her back and lungs, which made it difficult to breathe.
Days later, she started to shiver and shake despite taking paracetamol and ibuprofen. Medics have warned against taking ibuprofen as it dramatically worsens symptoms.
Tara wasn't swabbed the first time they went to hospital as they hadn't returned from a high-risk country.
Richard told the MailOnline : "She was rushed straight into intensive care and at one point we thought she might have to be sedated and go on a ventilator but fortunately she was strong enough for that not to happen.
"But she was still very poorly. She wanted to make it clear for others that it isn't just the elderly who are at risk from this virus which is why she made that video."
He added that Tara frequently goes to the gym and has no underlying health conditions. He is unsure if she picked up the iillness while on holiday or from a public space like the gym.
As of 9am on 19 March 2020, 64,581 people have been tested in the UK, of which 61,352 were confirmed negative and 3,229 were confirmed positive. 144 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraged people today in a press briefing to abide by the social distancing measures in bid to slow the spread of the disease.
Tonight the Health Secretary has sought to allay doctors' fears that they are lacking the protective equipment and ventilators they needed to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
Matt Hancock insisted on Thursday evening that a "massive effort" was under way to deliver personal protective equipment to NHS staff and social care providers.
He said 2.6 million masks and 10,000 bottles of hand sanitiser have been shipped in the past 24 hours and promised that every hospital will have a fresh delivery by the end of Sunday.
A junior doctor in Weston-super-Mare appeared on the BBC's Question Time to tell him her colleagues are "frightened" of ending up in a situation similar to Italy's in a few weeks.
She asked how vital equipment would be rationed when the NHS becomes "overwhelmed".
Mr Hancock said: "I know that there are concerns on the frontline around making sure that the protective equipment keeps coming.
"I can tell you that over the last 24 hours we've shipped 2.6 million masks, 10,000 bottles of hand sanitiser, and we have a growing effort to get that equipment to the frontline.
