Rochdale's MP Tony Lloyd on how his battle with Covid-19 brought him ‘proper humility’

It was March 2020 and Tony Lloyd had returned home from London as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and the country was ordered to avoid ‘all unnecessary social contact’.

Just a few days later the Prime Minister would declare what, at the time, was an almost unthinkable national lockdown, with a strict ‘stay at home’ message.

The 70-year-old Rochdale MP had not been feeling 100 per cent in the days leading up to the announcement that put Parliament – and much of the rest of the country – on indefinite hold, suffering with the ‘flu-like symptoms’ that are the classic signs of a Covid-19 infection.

But the former Police and Crime Commissioner felt he was beginning to improve and there was no real cause for alarm.

That was soon to change dramatically, though, and his battle with the deadly virus was about to begin.

“As with a lot of people, I felt I was getting better,” says Tony.

“But I woke up in the middle of one night and realised I had a raging temperature and my breathing wasn’t good.”

Sensing he was in trouble, Tony called the NHS 111 helpline and an ambulance was immediately dispatched to his home. He was rushed to A&E at Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he would later be put on a ventilator and placed in an induced coma.

Unbeknownst to the father of four, he was at significantly heightened risk from the illness due to a serious, but as yet undiagnosed condition.

A ‘very routine blood test’ he had taken while in London had detected a low red blood cell count.

He would eventually be diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer – a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia – but not until his battle with Covid was won.

It was his fight with the virus that would see the Labour politician spend two weeks in hospital – including five days in an induced coma – before he was well enough to return to the care of his family.

Fortunately, Tony is also now in remission from blood cancer following a successful course of chemotherapy.

And the Parliamentarian says the kindness of strangers – as well as the support of his loved ones and skill of the medical professions – has been invaluable in his fight for life.

“I’m genuinely so grateful to so many people who have been there for me,” he says.

“It’s the obvious people – those in my family, my loved-ones, those who thought of me, those who quite literally prayed for me during the worst times I was ill.

“But actually it was all manner of people. I had a number of blood transfusions [as part of his cancer treatment] and I will never know who those donations came from. But what amazing people – they almost certainly saved my life.

“I can never thank them other than through articles like this.”

Tony pays full tribute to the doctors, nurses and other medics who diagnosed him, treated him and nursed him back to health, but his gratitude spreads far wider than those responsible for his immediate care and recovery.

“It’s also all those people who are very often faceless,” he says. “The people who bring you sandwiches and clean the wards.

“There was a really nice guy when I was in hospital, he was one of the cleaners. 

“We know they are on rubbish money, but even in the middle of a deep clean he had the time to be a nice human being who was interested in how I was doing.

“At one level it’s unknown people who have kept the show on the road for me personally – and for society in general.”

For Tony it has been cause to reflect on the contributions made across society – from food bank volunteers and vaccine hub administrators to care home staff – and reinforced his respect for public services.

“In the end, it’s how society functions,” says Tony, who has also previously served as MP for Stretford and Manchester Central.

“Sometimes amazing people do amazing things – and the skills of our medical profession are genuinely amazing.

“But it’s also ordinary people doing amazing things that gets you as well. These, to me, are the things I’ve learned.”

 

 

The one-time interim Greater Manchester mayor says his experience has given him a ‘genuine sense of humility’.

“When you reach a point where there’s nothing you can do for yourself it gives you that sense of proper humility,” he says.

“That’s good for me, but it’s also good to recognise how important our public services are.”

While eternally grateful to those who have saved his life and put him on the road to recovery, Tony’s memories of his time in hospital remain something of a blur.

“There’s lots I don’t remember,” he says. “I remember leaving the ambulance at A&E but not being at the MRI [Manchester Royal Infirmary] or anything else until I woke up after being in a coma.”

He describes those uncertain weeks in late March and early April as a ‘traumatic time, quite literally’.

But, being oblivious to his own plight, the stress and worry fell on his family, rather than himself.

Tony says his heart goes out to those who are today left hoping and praying their loved ones will pull through their own Covid battles.

“You feel for people going through this now, when someone they care for now goes into hospital you are bound to fear the worst even though you hope for the best,” he says.

“I know in my case, my condition was deteriorating and it didn’t look good, and that’s the horrible thing.

“It was not me that was concerned about that – I didn’t have a clue about what was going on. I’m not being casual when I say this, but I didn’t have to worry – I couldn’t, I didn’t know what was going on.

“When they put the ventilator tube in, that was quite unpleasant. Apparently, I tried to take it out, but I’m not conscious of even that, it’s just what people have told me afterwards.”

However, Tony does recall – with some amusement – having some ‘amazing dreams’ while in the medically-induced coma.

“For example, I spent some time on a plane in one dream,” he remembers.

“One of the nurses was telling me afterwards I wanted to get out of the plane. It had landed – in this dream – in Germany, and I wanted to get out.

“They kept telling me ‘you can’t get out, just wait and stay in your seat’.

“But, in reality, I was trying to get out of bed, the nurses told me. Things like that are based on some form of reality, your mind’s ability to reinterpret things is amazing.

“Why Germany? Why a plane when I am in a hospital bed? But, hey, The mind is an interesting place!”

Fortunately, Tony was one of the lucky ones who did pull through, despite the underlying cancer he says was ‘almost certainly’ the reason he was hit so hard by Covid.

And while his memories of his time in hospital will probably remain somewhat hazy, there is one moment that sticks in his mind.

On the day of discharge, weakened by his battle with Covid, he was struggling to carry a bag containing some spare clothes and books his family had brought for him.

“One of the nurses came and helped me and carried the bag for me,” he says.

“When I left, she clapped me and said how pleased she was for me. I was really touched by that.

“I thought, ‘there’s a nurse who herself is working to make people better and taking the risk of Covid – it would be appropriate for me to clap her rather than her to be clapping me.”

Nearly a year on from his Covid ordeal Tony says he is ‘mainly on the way back now’. 

Although hospitalised by the virus he considers himself ‘lucky’ not to have any of the ‘long covid’ symptoms that have dogged so many sufferers – including his Labour colleague Andrew Gwynne MP.

Neither has he suffered depression or low moods – something he credits the support of his ‘brilliant’ family for.

And while he has foregone his former role as shadow Northern Ireland secretary, he never seriously considered stepping down as Labour MP for Rochdale.

“It would have been unfair to the people I represent had I done that,” he says.

“There’s no capacity for a by-election at the moment and I was able to perform most of my role as MP over those months. 

“So, it’s not perfect, but I didn’t really think about that.

“The Northern Ireland role does require you to be in Northern Ireland with some regularity, so I thought it was only fair to let someone else do that and concentrate on my job as MP.”
 

Read more: Tony Lloyd MP steps down as shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland to focus on Covid-19 recoveryPublished: 28 April 2020

While Tony is now well on the road to recovery, his brush with death has inevitably had an effect on how he looks at life.

“There’s an old saying ‘live every day as though you’ll live forever and live every day as if it’s your last’ – there’s a lot of truth in that,” he says.

“You should learn to value the time you have got and what you do with the time you have got.

“We are not invulnerable, none of us are superman or superwoman.

“You have just got to make sure that what you are doing makes sense and don’t take life for granted – and don’t take other people for granted.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter