Long Covid: MSP Richard Leonard praises Falkirk support group

It’s almost two years since Suzanne Grant and Noreen Walton took matters into their own hands when they realised that so many others were like them and still suffering from the effects of covid.

People from across not only the district, but central Scotland attend the Falkirk Long Covid Support Group meetings.

Now Richard Leonard, Labour MSP for Central Scotland, has praised the group in parliament, for the work they do bringing people together and advocating for change.

He said that he could “think of no group who have made a bigger impression on me” than those who meet in Brightons parish church hall.

In his speech in Holyrood this week, the MSP added: “For too long, ignored as individuals, they got organised as a collective.

“Up and against bureaucracy, they adopted the values of self-help, mutual aid and support.

“But they provide a united voice as well. So that where once they were invisible and silent, they are now highly visible and justifiably vocal.”

He described how long covid patients “are still falling through the gaps of what they always believed be a cradle to the grave system”.

Richard Leonard closed by saying: “We must all be led by long covid sufferers and their families, like those I meet in Brightons.

“We need to empower them, give them agency, so that our value systems, our institutional forms, our political response is shaped by them, driven by them.

“And all bound together with the solemn guiding principle that we remember the dead but that we fight for the living.”

Earlier this year, NHS Forth Valley announced it had set up a service to provide a range of advice and specialist support to help people affected manage their symptoms and improve their health and wellbeing.

It offers a range of one-to-one clinics and group sessions where people can access support from a wide range of healthcare professionals including a physiotherapist, a psychologist, dieticians, speech and language therapists. They can also refer people to other specialist services, if required, for further assessment or support, depending on their individual needs.

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