A mum who spent years suffering from a brain bug that could have killed her has revealed how she used to go to sleep not knowing if she'd wake up.
Angelique Aldworth, 44, was rugby-mad and working as a coach in the sport in Dawlish, Devon, when she started suffering agonising headaches in February 2020.
She recalled: "The headaches were a thudding all over my head, it just felt like my whole head was suffering. It didn't stop, I had no release unless I slept.
"When I woke up I had a headache, and when I slept I had a headache. It was all day."
Assuming she was just a bit under the weather, the mum brushed it off and hoped they would subside.
For more of the news you care about straight to your inbox, sign up for one of our daily newsletters here
But on 10 March, just days before the first national lockdown, Angelique's head began to pound after dropping off her kids Ava, 16, and Larry, nine, at school.
The pain was so bad she took to bed for three days, completely unable to move or even lift her head from the pillow.
As her condition got worse, Angelique began to hallucinate - thinking she was covered in vomit and demanding to be washed.
She said: "I got myself in the shower because I thought I was covered in sick. I was just convinced I had been sick. I'm not sure what I was feeling. It was just odd."
After three days in bed, Angelique's husband Colin got up early to go to the gym and went to kiss his wife goodbye.
But when he walked into the bedroom, he found her having an enormous seizure that had caused her to bite through her tongue.
He called an ambulance and Angelique was blue-lighted to hospital.
The rugby coach, who can't remember the incident, said: "I was so lucky that Colin came to check on me. If he hadn't, one of my children would have found me before they were meant to go school."
When she got to the hospital, Angelique was put into an induced coma and placed on a ventilator.
She woke up 10 days later in the intensive care unit - on the same day lockdown was imposed upon the UK for the first time.
Terrified and confused, Angelique was even more traumatised when doctors told her she had encephalitis - an infection that causes swelling on the brain.
She also learned just how close she'd been to the brink while in the hospital when doctors told her they'd tried to bring her out of the coma five times, before putting her back in.
Angelique said: "They tried to talk to me, to try and get me to respond but I didn’t. And they got more and more concerned."
Further tests revealed the infection had been caused by chickenpox - which she'd had as an infant but had flared up for a second time.
But while she coped with the shock of what had happened to her, Angelique was left completely alone when the hospital banned visitors.
"I felt so lonely, and I was a bit scared. I didn’t fully understand what was happening," she said.
She spent the next five days in the high dependency ward before she was moved to Devon's Newton Abbot Community Hospital, where she would continue her rehabilitation before being allowed to return home.
But in her confused state, she was still unsure about why she'd been rushed to hospital in the first place.
Eventually, after more than two weeks in hospital, neurologists fully explained her condition - explaining she'd need months of rehab.
She said: "It was so overwhelming. I didn’t stop crying and I didn’t know if I had permanent brain injuries.
"I didn't know if I'd ever be able to feed myself, or if I'd be able to play rugby again, or coach again."
After being discharged from the hospital to recover, her mental health was at its lowest point ever as she suffered severe panic attacks and burst into tears almost every day.
She even feared going to sleep in case she never woke up.
Angelique said: "Colin is amazing. He has sat with me in the middle of the night while I had panic attacks and when I cried almost continually for the first 10 months, petrified that I was going to die."
In time, she decided to see a psychologist, who diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"I was told continually that it would get better - but I didn’t believe it," she said.
"I thought I’d never coach or play rugby again, perform physical activities with my children, get a full-time job, or complete my degree.
"I was worried about my cognitive ability, whether my IQ would be affected. My concentration levels were really poor.
"Anything would trigger tears. I was a mess for a year."
But over time, with plenty of work on her mental health and the motivation of her family, Angelique gradually began to get better.
She took on a sports course, which she completed in October last year, and went back to coaching her local girls' team alongside Colin.
Angelique said: "We are a rugby family, it’s like a religion for us.
"I’m feeling really optimistic now. March 13 will be the two year anniversary, and I didn’t think I would be where I am now two years ago."
