A family still shielding more than three years after the beginning of the pandemic says they have become forgotten as the rest of the world moves on.
Rob Boxall said they are continuing to shield due to his wife Mandy being in remission from blood cancer, and his daughter Mollie – who has cerebral palsy – not having the antibodies to fight off Covid.
The trio have been shielding at home since the pandemic struck more than three years ago in March of 2020, and say isolation is a ‘lonely existence’ in which they feel forgotten.
Mr Boxall even lost his job due to the strains placed on his life by the pandemic.
With the government’s advice for shielding having ended on ‘Freedom Day’ in July 2021, families like the Boxalls have been forced to make their own rules to protect themselves.
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Meanwhile, a University of London Professor also shielding due to health concerns says it’s ‘depressing’ that evenings out at the pub with friends are now a ‘distant memory’.
Former care worker Mr Boxall says he has to meticulously plan any outings to the shop.
The 57-year-old, from Herne Bay in Kent, says he has even been subjected to abuse from members of the public for continuing to wear a mask after it was stopped as a mandatory requirement.
Mr Boxall said: “I have been abused in the street for wearing a mask.
“There was a fella who walked along and said, ‘Take your f****** mask off, you ****’. I thought, ‘What harm is it doing you?’.”
Mr Boxall’s wife Mandy fell ill in Christmas 2019 and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma – a type of blood cancer – at the beginning of 2020.
The 61-year-old former childminder’s chemotherapy was completed in June of the same year and she started cancer maintenance treatment, which completely wiped her immune system out.
She became one of around 2.2 million people identified by the NHS as being clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), along with her daughter Mollie, 31.
He said: “Once you have blood cancer, it is treatable but not curable. Mandy has had seven vaccines against Covid but still has no antibodies.
“We were told if she caught the virus, she would not fare well – which was a nice way of saying she would not survive.”
Describing the struggles of the internment of isolation, Mr Boxall added: “There is no social life and I have to talk to friends on the phone.
“If I do meet a friend it is in my back garden, so you have to choose a day with good weather.
“Once winter hits, our lives become more secluded and isolated. You have your good days but isolation is a very lonely existence.
“You do feel, with the way society has gone back to normality, that you’ve been forgotten about.”
Mr Boxall’s dedication to protecting his family from the virus has even cost him his livelihood.
He explained: “I was signed off sick in February 2020 with stress, anxiety and depression as I was trying to deal with my wife’s cancer.
Due to shielding, the Boxalls have missed out on precious moments with close members of the family – including grandchildren.
The couple have another daughter who lives in Faversham with her two sons, aged five and 18 months.
