A tennis coach battling coronavirus says it felt like his lungs were being crushed as he struggled to catch his breath.
Fit and healthy Max Hastings who has no underlying health conditions, was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital in London via ambulance after struggling to breathe on Mother's Day.
The 45-year-old was suffering from a temperature of 39 degrees, and was diagnosed with coronavirus the next day.
Mr Hastings spent two nights hooked up to oxygen in a coronavirus isolation ward with three other patients, while suffering from a fever and a non-stop cough which prevented him from sleeping.
Mr Hastings, who runs Caf des Sport in Acton, West London, alongside tennis coaching is now recovering at his sister's home in Vauxhall, after being discharged from hospital on Tuesday evening - but said the virus left him feeling the worst he has ever felt.
He said: "It's awful - it feels like your lungs are being crushed.
"At my worse I was down to about 90 per cent oxygen levels in my blood, which doctors said was okay, but it still felt like I couldn't get any air in.
"It feels a bit touch and go when you're experiencing it.
"It was probably the worst I have ever felt in my life.
"I didn't expect to get it and I was certainly not expecting to be hit so hard by it.
"I had no underlying health problems and I am very active - I have been teaching tennis all my life.
"You think that you're a lot less likely to get it than older people, but you can still be hit hard by it.
"I think people just think that coronavirus goes away after a few weeks, but it can be a lot more serious than that.
"I've not been able to sleep properly for about 10 days because of the cough - it rips your lungs apart.
"And then when your breathing kicks in again, you're fighting back the sweats and fever.
"It comes in waves and all of a sudden you're sweating buckets and coughing your guts ups.
"And as soon as you stop coughing you can't breathe.
"Unfortunately, it's the older generation that is not going to be so lucky in terms of surviving it."
