Nik Scott caught pneumonia aged 19 which would go on to cause two decades of respiratory problems before doctors were finally able to diagnose what was was wrong with him. “From my late teens, I would have at least three severe chest infections a year, that would completely wipe me out for at month at a time. I also coughed constantly and had a lot of phlegm,” the 42-year-old from Manchester said.
“In January 2019, I was so poorly with flu that I was really scared. I couldn’t stop coughing, struggled to get out of bed, and had a constant pain in the right side of my chest.” He was sent to Manchester Royal Infirmary for a CT scan, which showed a large shadow on his right lung.
A subsequent bronchoscopy – where doctors look directly at the airways in the lungs using a thin, lighted tube – led the consultant to believe Mr Scott had bronchiectasis, a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection. “The respiratory consultant explained that the lower lobe of my right lung was quite badly damaged and that mucus was getting trapped in a space below it. I’d also had some sort of tropical infection that I’d probably picked up in Thailand seven years earlier.
” Despite taking all precautions, Mr Scott came down with Covid at the end of 2021 and was “completely floored” by the coronavirus. Three months and no improvement later, his consultant suggested .