Andrea McLean previously shared that she nearly died after complications with the disease led to her catching pneumonia
Loose Women presenter Andrea McLean has opened up about the devastating impact Long Covid has had on her everyday life, after revealing earlier this year that she was hospitalised because of it and found herself within 24 hours of death. During her appearance on Vanessa yesterday (June 4), the presenter, 55, shared how her life was completely derailed by the long-term effects of Covid.
She said: "So actually, the past couple of years have really... everything kind of ground to a halt. And it's been trying to get better from that, getting my energy back, getting my levels back. I was hospitalised at the start of the year with pneumonia, kidneys started failing, all that kind of thing."
During an appearance on Vanessa Andrea McLean spoke about how Long Covid is still affecting her
A clip of her time on the show was posted on Instagram, captioned: "It was a bit like having the worst kind of menopause symptoms because it was absolute exhaustion, joint pain, brain fog..."
Andrea has been open about her health battles since she fell seriously ill last December and collapsed at home after thinking she just had the flu.
After she was rushed to the hospital, doctors diagnosed her with severe pneumonia, sepsis, and acute kidney injury. They also warned her husband Nick that another 24 hours without treatment could have cost Andrea her life.
In a Substack post written by Andrea, she thought back to the terrifying incident, sharing: "Our bedroom is in the loft and the paramedics couldn’t get the stretcher around the tight bend.
"Eventually I managed to slide down the stairs, and was rushed to hospital. What happened over the next few weeks changed my life forever."
The former ITV daytime presenter said her recovery has been slow and emotionally draining. She was in and out of hospital throughout January and suffered a second collapse in March after getting out of bed too quickly, later revealing she was left with a black eye from the fall.
Despite these setbacks, Andrea was delighted to hit a personal milestone in May by returning to the gym for the first time in years. In a tearful Instagram video, she admitted she had cancelled her membership during her illness and lacked the confidence to go back.
She told followers: "This might not even seem like such a big deal, but for anyone who has kind of lost their way fitness-wise, wellness-wise... you’ll know what I’m talking about.
"I hadn't been confident enough to go back to the gym, so I've just been doing it on my own, and that actually makes me feel really sad to say it out loud, that I wasn't confident enough to go into a gym and do my little app workout.… I was so, so far from the fit person that I was."
She credited a recent wellness retreat in Turkey, where she trained alongside Olympic athletes and professional dancers, with helping rebuild her self-esteem.
"I was actually quite panicky about going," she admitted. "But I did it… and today is day one. I’m feeling really proud of myself."
Now that she is on the path to recovery, Andrea says her near-death experience forced her to reassess everything.She revealed: "There are rarely second chances in this life. That scary, horrible moment was a turning point. It’s led to now — and I’m feeling really positive about where I’m going."
