A WOMAN shielding during the pandemic has told how she opened her home to help a seriously-ill friend who was close to death after contracting Covid-19.

Christina Forrester from Port Glasgow stepped in to help her friend Mike Boustead, who caught the virus while he was in hospital awaiting a heart bypass.

He was at Cumberland Infirmary and had to be blue-lighted to another hospital in Newcastle where he spent nine weeks in intensive care and three on a respiratory ward.

When the 64-year-old, a retired BT engineer, was eventually discharged he remained very poorly and, despite her own difficulties, Christina immediately decided to step in.

Mike moved in to her Pladda Avenue home to convalesce and has been there since and now feels he is making progress.

He has told the Tele that he feels he owes his life to Christina and his own family.

Christina, 61, who lives with her husband Conan, said: "Mike suffered horrendously.

"There was lack of back-up care on exit from hospital.

"He had terrible problems along the way."

Christina says she her own health problems meant she felt she could offer Mike the help he needed.

She said: "I have MS and lung disease and so I felt I had a bit of insight into Mike's journey.

"I have been shielding for six months and mentally I feel I know what he is going through.

"We thought this would be the safest place for him to stay.

"Here he has the beauty and fresh air of the area."

Mike's sister Michelle Boorman, 63, who has lodged a formal complaint about her brother's case, said: "It's a miracle he survived, the state he was in was indescribable.

"I've got a photograph of him and I didn't recognise him.

"I really thought we were going to lose him.

"Ward staff had asked if he had dementia because he couldn't understand what he was being told to him."

At the end of his ordeal, when he was finally given the all clear, Mike was fitted with two stents and discharged just two days later without any help or support.

It was then that Christina decided to step in and get him up to Inverclyde to recover.

Mike said: "You can't just kick someone out of hospital like that.

"I didn't even had a wheelchair and I couldn't walk.

"I couldn't have coped at home, I couldn't breathe.

"My sister brought me up to Port Glasgow.

"My breathing is a lot better now since I've been here.

"There are beautiful views and clean air."

Mike says he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after his experience and he is being supported by Greenock-based Mind Mosaic with counselling he is paying for himself.

He said: "I keep bursting into tears and feel very angry.

"I am traumatised by it all, I have no control over my emotions.

"The fatigue I experience both mentally and physically is shattering.

"I wake up at 2am every morning in a sweat and have night terrors.

"If it hadn't been for my sister and brother-in-law and Christina I would have been dead."

Mike is still waiting for a CT scan and his heart by-pass.

Christina says she is trying to 'build up' her friend's health so he is well enough to go through the operation when the time comes.

She said: "We are trying to get him as fit as we can with some exercise and good food."