Entrepreneur back in Liverpool after COVID ordeal
Sophie Wilson spent 20 years down south and set up Tuesday Media, but she tells the Baltic Triangle Podcast how her long COVID ordeal has led to her moving back to her home city of Liverpool. Tony McDonough reports
A successful entrepreneur who spent 20 years in the south of England has relocated her business back to her home city of Liverpool after suffering long COVID.
Sophie Wilson had built up her marketing and PR business, Tuesday Media, in Brighton. She had clients across the UK and some overseas. The venture was flying – and then she was struck down with COVID-19.
In an interview for the latest monthly Baltic Triangle Podcast, she said: “We were ahead of the curve. We already had a remote and agile workforce across the UK. We were working on some great projects. I delivered one project for Hotel Chocolat in New York.
“I got COVID around Easter in 2020. I lost my sense of taste and smell, was full of aches and pains and I had exhaustion like I had never known before. My condition deteriorated very quickly. I collapsed on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night, unable to breathe.
“Paramedics came out. But it was very early days and they were still trying to keep people out of hospital. The paramedics had a phone conversation with a consultant and it was decided as I was generally fit and healthy, I should stay at home but with a friend checking on me every hour.”
Sophie’s ordeal continued and, in the subsequent weeks, she was taken to hospital on more than one occasion with heart attack-like symptoms. Her illness continued for months and she was unable to work or do much at all.
At that point there was little recognition of what was eventually identified as “long COVID”, where symptoms such as exhaustion would linger for months. She wrote an article for the Huffington Post on the issue and joined with other sufferers and doctors to lobby the media to get more recognition for long COVID.
But her continuing illness was impacting on her ability to earn a living. She added: “Family and friends had to stage an intervention and come and rescue me. I could not work and pay my mortgage.
“I moved back to my parents home in Liverpool in June 2020. I moved out in April this year and I have decided to stay in Liverpool. I am much better today. I still have an issue with exhaustion but my recovery has really been helped by getting the vaccine.”
Now Sophie has decided to relaunch Tuesday Media in her home city. She said: “I am really excited to be relaunching Tuesday in the North West. Even though I have lived down south for 20 years I have always loved my home city. Liverpool is brilliant now… it feels so vibrant and creative.”
This month’s Baltic Triangle Podcast also features an interview with another entrepreneur, Max McDonough. He is a former lawyer who now makes high-end, hand-crafted leather goods (Raw Hide) from his workshop in Liverpool’s north docks.