Western Isles folk share their stories of ‘Life in Lockdown’

Now BBC ALBA is telling the stories of a number of people and their experiences of their time coping with the pandemic.

Sgeulachdan a’ Ghlasaidh (Life in Lockdown) started following a variety of Scottish contributors who recorded and filmed their own stories from two weeks into lockdown.

Some of these people have first-hand experience of the virus, some are frontline workers and others have been shielding.

The programmes also feature s contributions from people in other parts of the world to offer a wider perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic.

Trusadh – Sgeulachdan a’ Ghlasaidh (Life in Lockdown) is on BBC ALBA on Monday and Tuesday, September 7 amd 8, 9-9.45pm, and will also be available on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days afterwards.

The contributors include:

Des Hart (46) – from a village near Coupar Angus

Des, a qualified pilot, was asked to fly urgently needed Covid-19 testing kits to locations around the Western Isles for the NHS and decided to help because he wanted to give something back to the NHS.

His daughter Sophia (10) was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare bone cancer when she was six years old and the NHS moved quickly to give her chemotherapy and an experimental immunotherapy treatment – and she’s been in remission since.

The request to deliver the testing kits came to him at 5pm on a Tuesday night and he was tasked with picking up the kits in Stornoway at noon the following day, and then dropping them off in Benbecula and Barra.

After several frantic phone calls that evening to get everything organised, it was all arranged and he arrived on time the next day.

Des said: “My daughter’s doing fantastic today, she’s full of energy and mischief, you’d never know she was so ill.

“The NHS saved her life and the opportunity to give something back to them was the least I could do.

“It was a real honour and a privilege to be able to use my flying qualifications to be able to help Western Isles NHS in the battle against Covid.”

Uisdean MacLeod and his son Rowan – Isle of Lewis

Uisdean, who presents a cookery show on BBC ALBA called Seòid a’ Chidsin – The Kitchen Coves, was shielding with his family during lockdown because his son Rowan has cystic fibrosis which places him in the high-risk category.

They didn’t go anywhere at all and relied on their friends to do their shopping.

He says he’s never been so happy that they live on the Isle of Lewis because they have beaches and the sea so near to their house and this really helped them to cope with lockdown.

Amanda Nicolson (22) – originally from Isle of Lewis but now lives in Broxburn near Edinburgh

Amanda works as a biomedical scientist in the blood science laboratory at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and deals with blood samples from patients who are in hospital or sent from GP surgeries.

During the pandemic her department got a new machine which tests for Coronavirus so they could assist the Covid-19 testing centres because they were overwhelmed by the number of tests they had to carry out.

Amanda is currently taking part in the trial for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Mairi Ord and her son Aiden (10) – from the Isle of Lewis

Mairi normally has two jobs, one full-time as a baker for the Harris Distillery and one part-time as a factor.

She was placed on furlough for her baking job and reveals the challenges she faces of being at home all day and homeschooling her son on her own because he doesn’t really want to do lessons, he would rather be on the trampoline or play computer games!

The grandfather of a friend of theirs passes away during the programme and Mairi is sad that they can’t visit the family to offer them some comfort and a hug.

She delivers homemade soup and bread to them and leaves it outside their door, and she says the situation feels “so unreal”.

Babs MacGregor – Glasgow

Babs was brought up on the Western Isles. She now lives and works in Glasgow.

She is part of the highly successful co-operative, Greencity Wholefoods, who supply whole foods to shops and restaurants all over Scotland.

Babs is philosophical about the Coronavirus – she thinks it has taught us how precious the small things in life are.

She says she appreciates “things like our friends and family and the environment; the birdlife, the trees and just going for a walk in the park and listening to the environment around us”.

She adds: “This virus is having a massive impact on people’s lungs and we are doing the same thing to the planet, knocking down trees for developments, we need to learn from the times we are in.”