Wally Charlton is celebrating his 57th birthday.
But with his friends and family isolated at home, it won't be the party the NHS worker might have hoped for.
But this will still be a birthday Wally will never forget - as it's one he thought he might never reach.
After battling Covid-19 symptoms at his Heaton home for almost three weeks, Wally had to call an ambulance on Good Friday, which took him to the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
He spent almost two days in intensive care, with a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine helping him breathe, before being transferred onto a ward.
Six days later he left the ward - to a standing ovation from the team caring for him – and is now self-isolating back at home with wife Debbie.
Wally, who works as head of improvement and development at North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group, started to suffer coronavirus symptoms at the end of March.
Wally said: “I started to feel ill on the Friday but by Sunday I was totally wiped out – it hit me like nothing else has ever before.
“So I self-isolated for as long as I could with my absolute rock – my wife Debbie – but felt myself getting weaker and weaker. I then started to pick up again but by Good Friday we had to get an ambulance – it wasn’t a good Friday.”
Fighting double pneumonia, Wally says he had never been more scared - and feared he was "sailing a bit too close to the wind".
“But the staff there were phenomenal. I felt like I had a football team behind me and not once did I feel alone – they never left my side, they were lovely. The support and care I received both in intensive care and on the ward was second to none – they were there for me.
“People need to recognise and realise what the staff in the hospitals are doing; the care they’re giving and the environment they’re working in with that PPE on every day – yet they still had a smile for you – sometimes a song for you - and they made you feel you were in safe hands.
”They were also ringing my wife to tell her how I was doing as she couldn’t be with me. They are just true professionals working flat with their own families and bairns at home.”
Almost a week later, Wally was well enough to be sent home, to the cheers of the team who cared for him.
He said: “When I was leaving they lined up and applauded me and I thought why are you doing that – you’ve just saved my life – all I wanted to do was give them a big hug.
“It’s going to be another four to eight weeks until I’ll fully better but I am on the mend. I’m just so overwhelmed emotionally – it was a three-week adventure I’d never want to go on again – but they were unbelievable people.
“You hear and read some tragic stories – I’m one of those who got better and I get to celebrate my birthday with my wife and family on Monday. Thank you.”
