A dad who suffered so badly from Covid that he had to learn how to walk and talk again has warned others the virus ‘is no joke.’

Anthony Simms, 48, spent six weeks on a ventilator in hospital and developed kidney failure during his battle with the deadly disease.

At one point he was so ill his partner, Alison Penketh, 50, was told she should prepare the family to say their goodbyes to him.

Anthony, from Middlesbrough, eventually pulled through but, when he woke up, he had to learn how to talk again and needed physiotherapy in order to walk.

In total, he spent four months in hospital and is still relying on oxygen and a walker to move around.

Anthony, whose son Joe is 14, said: ‘It’s nothing to joke about. I was sceptical about it – until it happens to yourself you don’t know.

‘I was in hospital for four months. Everything was a challenge – getting off the ventilator, learning to talk, then physio. I also found out I had bed sores.

‘I just wish it never happened. I’m still struggling with it now. Even when I am going up and down stairs I have got to take oxygen with me.’

Anthony began to feel ill on Christmas Eve last year but the virus was mild at first and he only had aches and pains.

But his condition deteriorated rapidly over the festive season and on December 29, he rang 999 after almost collapsing and was rushed to hospital.

Prior to getting Covid himself, Anthony admits he had doubts about it and how quickly it had spread across the world.

He said: ‘I did believe it was a virus, I just couldn’t believe how quickly it got around and how there was a vaccine a year later.

‘On December 24 I contracted the virus. It was just aches and pains nothing else.

‘On the 29th I came down stairs and stood on the front, then came back in and my legs just went from underneath me. I didn’t fall to the floor, I managed to get a hold of the banister.’

Anthony said it was the paramedic who told him he had coronavirus after discovering that his oxygen level had dropped to 83.

Within 12 hours of him arriving at the hospital, he was transferred to the ICU.

Anthony said: ‘The next thing they come around saying you are going to be put on a ventilator.

‘I was on 80% oxygen, I thought I was doing alright, I just couldn’t understand it.

‘I wasn’t scared – if it needed to be done it needed to be done. I said my girlfriend needs to know. She wasn’t able to see me at all. The last time she saw me I was going in the ambulance.’

Anthony said that his health deteriorated even more and his family were told to expect the worst.

He said: ‘Alison got a phone call saying she might have to come and say her goodbyes.

‘She couldn’t come up as she had Covid herself, our son was 13 at the time. It’s been hard on him as well.

‘They said “we’re going to try everything to save him”. It seems like I must have passed away and they have brought me back.’

Anthony said after he got off the ventilator it still took him weeks before he was even able to stand up again.

He couldn’t talk and when he tried to write down how he was feeling, it came out as ‘a load of mumbo jumbo’.

Although he still has some way to go in his recovery, Anthony has thanked the staff at both the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and the Redcar Primary Care Hospital who treated him.

He added: ‘The staff are working angels, I can’t thank them enough. I’m grateful to them all and they all know that.’

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