Milton Keynes mum of five lifts the lid on hospital visits and 'endless symptoms' at a tearful Long Covid kids meeting

Charlie Mountford-Hill from Milton Keynes told The Mirror her "life changed forever" when her entire family of seven transmitted the virus.

The mother-of-five's family have been struggling with Covid since February, her five-year-old daughter, Mimi, has been hospitalised twice. Charlie, 37, now believes she is suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and extreme anxiety, any time she hears one of her children cough or sneeze.

Her young daughter was first hospitalised gastric problems, along with an 'endless list' of other symptoms including rashes and aches in April. Mimi, was taken to hospital again, this time in an ambulance with bruising showing across her face, with a high heart rate.

Charlie said: "I watched bruising spread from her temples all across her face. Her heart rate was really high. She had three different skin rashes, she had strawberry tongue, she had mouth ulcers. She would have these episodes where you'd call her name and she wouldn't respond.

"She would wake up every morning crying in pain with her stomach. Her hands were peeling. Her feet were peeling. She was covered in bruises. She got admitted and they ran some blood tests and said there's nothing wrong with her. By this point I had lists, I'd written down multi-inflammatory syndrome and vasculitis. I'd written down all these storms in the body, but no, they ran some tests and because those tests had come back normal she was sent home, with no support and no help."

Charlie's ten-year-old son, Indy, was also taken to hospital. She added: "Indy, his breathing got worse, he started to have allergic reactions to food. We had to rush him to A&E in May, as well. By this point, all the whites in his eyes had turned red, he had bruising as well, his eyes had sunken, and he had these nosebleeds he couldn't get under control.

"I mean, I've got four boys they're always having nosebleeds. But this was [like] nothing that I have ever seen before. Again, I took him in and was told there was absolutely nothing wrong with him, they didn't even run blood tests.

I broke down and was completely hysterical. I kept saying since March: 'No, no, no we don't want to know about March, I want to know what happened now. All children have nosebleeds'. I was hysterical and they actually opened a multiform agency referral against me, saying I was an unfit mother, because I literally broke down and sobbed, and begged them to listen to me."

Today, on Tuesday January 26, she was one of three mothers sharing evidence of how children can suffer from the virus on a long term basis.

Currently, all three mothers feel they have been given no answers as to how their families will be affected by Covid over the coming years or when their children may return to full health.

The mothers were speaking to the All Party Group on Coronavirus in a session held by Layla Moran MP, designed at raising awareness on just how much children can suffer if they contract the coronavirus.

Also speaking at the event was Sammie McFarland, from Dorchester, who founded Long Covid Kids, a Facebook-based campaign and support group for parents looking after children suffering with Long Covid.

The group currently contains 688 families who have between one and eight children suffering from Covid.

Sammie's daughter, Kitty, still hasn't recovered after first falling ill in March 2020.

Mother-of-two, Frances Simpson, also spoke to the parliamentary committee, she is a founding member of Long CovidSOS and is collaborating with Sammie to raise awareness of children suffering long term and get better grasp on just how many families are in this situation.

On the virtual call held via zoom, which was livestreamed on Twitter and Youtube, Lord Strasburger of the Liberal Democrat Party, described the mothers' treatment as 'a national disgrace'.

His reaction came after hearing stories from mothers who are still struggling to prove to medical professionals that their children's continued health problems are directly related to the coronavirus.

Whilst none of the three mother's experiences with schools had been so extreme. Sammie confirmed that the Long Covid Kids group have received reports from parents of receiving: "bullying, fines and harassment", for keeping their children out-of-school. She feels schools are 'pressurised' into keeping attendance figures up and haven't always understood how little energy their children have and how much breathing can become a struggle.

Charlie also talked about her personal struggles dealing with the illness on top of mothering five desperately poorly children, she added: "I was taken to A+E five times with constant chest pains and was told there was nothing wrong with me. It was only when a GP ran a specific blood test that it showed my heart was at an increased rate of failing. I saw a cardiologist via the phone and I was diagnosed with pericarditis."

Initially Charlie's three other children didn't seem to be ill but as the months have passed from the families' initial self-isolation period in February, that has changed. "One came out with shingles all down the back of his leg. The whites of their eyes were turning red, because of persistent headaches. My 12-year-old his feet got so sore he couldn't physically wear shoes.

"My 15-year-old had a lot of testicular pain. and he was hospitalised in november with it. Again, no-one would listen to me saying it was related to having Covid in March. They said it was taution and yet they couldn't find any evidence of taution. It's still ongoing, we have seen improvements, very slow improvements. It's very up and down. Emmett who is eight, who never seemed ill at the time is now, dealing with really red cheeks, gastric symptoms still. We are waiting for an EMT referral for him as he seems to have sleep apnea.

"The way he describes it as an eight-year-old, 'as I fall asleep mummy, my heart stops and I can't breathe'."

Lord Strasburger closed the session that ran for just over an hour, by addressing the three mothers. He stated: "This is a national scandal. You've been ignored. You've been marginalised. You've been disbelieved, you've not been offered any treatment, for you, or your children. You've not been offered any support. You've not even been offered any interest. It's a really dreadful situation. It's an outrage."