A mother-of-two who contracted coronavirus as part of an east Perthshire cluster has insisted she “followed all the rules” and hit out at gossips for pointing the finger on social media.
Fitness instructor Marti Rennie began feeling “weirdly tired and weak” days after a birthday party for her four-year-old daughter.
The 34-year-old initially thought she had been affected by the thundery weather, but booked herself a test when she began showing symptoms.
Marti, a part-time stylist from Blairgowrie, said she doesn’t know how she caught the virus, but she was in contact last week with a friend who works at the 2 Sisters chicken factory.
She said her ordeal has been made even worse by finger-pointing and gossip on social media.
Marti, who said she felt “lucky and blessed” to avoid hospitalisation, said: “I am the first person I know who has had the virus, but I would occasionally hear others wonder if it was truly that awful.
“I can now offer indisputable confirmation: It is awful.”
She said: “My temperature didn’t go up, instead it dropped to insane levels, making me weak. I had chills and sweated through numbers of PJs.”
Marti, who is now in quarantine until at least the end of the month, said she also had a dry cough that kept her awake. “I would fall asleep and then wake up terrified from crazy dreams, covered in sweat,” she said.
She said she also lost her sense of smell and about 2kg in weight in the first four days.
“Nobody tells you about the dread and fear the moment you get that result,” she said. “I have been scared out of my mind.
“You can have all the statistics and odds of survival for young women in their 30s, but it doesn’t matter. Once you realise you have a virus that could kill you, there is nothing you can do about it. You live in constant fear.”
Marti, who had to postpone her wedding because of lockdown, said she was also left feeling angry.
“I have abandoned social circles, I didn’t set foot inside my church, I avoided supermarkets and I wore masks everywhere,” she said. “I followed all the rules. I must have let my guard down at some point, but when?”
And she said there was also the “unnecessary pain” of feeling like a “forbidden member of the public” on social media. “Everyone felt the need to share their concerns and warn each other to stay away from me and my family,” she said.
“That was followed by finger pointing investigators who had the latest appalling news about a ‘coronavirus girl in Blairgowrie’.
“People should look at their response to the illness, because the last thing we need is finger-pointing and shaming on the road to recovery.
“Replace it with a little bit more compassion and trust me, people will open up to you.”
