Long Covid: Rosie Pidgeon, 17, uses art to make sense of condition

A young artist from Belfast whose life has been curtailed by long Covid has channelled her experience of illness into her art.

Rosie Pidgeon, 17, is one of more than 100,000 children across the UK affected by the condition.

Her extreme fatigue, headaches and muscle pain meant she had to drop out of school and did not sit her A-levels.

But an exhibition of her art on display at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn is a window into her world.

The canvases explore long Covid from her unique perspective.

For Rosie, art is a passion and a way to come to terms with her condition.

One painting features little squares depicting things people have said to her about her condition.

These include: "Are you sure it isn't just anxiety?", "Have you tried yoga?" and "Just wait until you are older and you will understand real pain."

"One of them was said to me at the long Covid clinic where they told me I should be walking for 20 minutes a day," she said.

"There's no way I could do that and even if I could do it one day, I wouldn't be able to do anything for a few days afterwards."

Rosie now uses a wheelchair to get around and combat her feelings of extreme fatigue.

A black and white painting of Rosie in her bedroom with just a teddy bear for company is called Bedroom Cage.

She has spent many months in bed unable to function.

Some comments are not meant in a nasty way but do not help, she said.

"When people say I'm looking really well, I might look OK on the outside but inside I'm not," she said.

The centrepiece of her exhibition is a series of canvases, all linked, in bright rainbow colours featuring thousands of dots.

However, there is a sombre message.

"I wanted to show specifically how many kids are suffering with long Covid," Rosie said.

"Each dot is a child who has long Covid in the UK. There are 105,000 of us - that was in May.

"Then, in the summer, that number reduced and I painted over the ones who have recovered or say they're better."

A single dot carries Rosie's initials. She is hoping that at some stage, she will be able to paint over it too.

Another of the artworks features several empty packets of tablets - referencing the range of medication she takes.

"It's frustrating because no-one knows how to fix what I have, so the doctors are trying lots of different things," she said.

"Then, if something works, there are so many different things I'm taking that I'm not sure which it is that's helping."

Leaving school was a big decision, but it was one that Rosie took by herself.

She is now studying art at Belfast Metropolitan College and the support she has received there has helped.

Her dad, Colin, said seeing Rosie smile at the exhibition was worth its weight in gold.

"I'm so proud of everything she has achieved, I feel the tears coming up when I talk about it.

"Art is Rosie's passion and the fact she still has that means everything."

The exhibition, he said, is "a real testament to her guts and determination".

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence defines long Covid, or post-Covid syndrome, as symptoms during or after infection that continue for more than 12 weeks and are not explained by an alternative diagnosis.

An estimated 1.2m of those who answered the ONS survey reported at least one such symptom continuing for more than 12 weeks - health issues that they didn't think could be explained by anything else.

The sheer scale of cases over the past year has resulted in more than a third of people with long Covid acquiring it during the Omicron wave, according to the ONS.

The symptoms reported by newer long Covid sufferers are still broadly similar: weakness or tiredness, difficulty concentrating, shortness of breath and muscle aches are mentioned most often.