I am a 58-year-old woman living in Foxford, Co Mayo, and, five years ago, I started my journey with heart failure. I have been very scared in recent months as I know that if I contracted Covid-19, the outcome would be catastrophic. I have already been in intensive care since the start of the pandemic with my heart failure â I was on a ventilator and dialysis and my family were told to prepare for the worst. Thankfully, the skills of the staff at Mayo General Hospital intensive care unit, and God, saved me to fight another day. It was a normal Monday morning in June 2016 when I got up to go to work â I was a nurse based in St Maryâs hospital, Castlebar. I had been feeling a little unwell over the weekend. I took two paracetamols and went to work. I found it very difficult walking up the stairs, was feeling breathless and light-headed and felt muscle-type pains in my arms and across my shoulder blade. I thought it was the onset of flu. I continued to go to work for the next three days until Thursday, when my line manager said âYou are looking very paleâ and insisted that I go to hospital to have bloods taken. I walked over, had the bloods taken and then went home to wait for the results.