As we mark the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in Redbridge, the Recorder caught up with a doctor who recovered from a brutal ordeal with the virus herself as she embarks on a documentary about pandemics.
Dr Nidhi Gupta, an NHS consultant from Redbridge who works in an acute admissions ward in south-east London, caught a bad case of coronavirus herself last April just as cases were shooting up in the first wave.
The 41-year-old fell so ill that she had to throw her keys out the window for the ambulance when they came to her Redbridge home on April 23.
When the Recorder spoke to her four months later she was still suffering from fatigue, weight loss and hair loss.
She only fully recovered around October and is reluctant to think she suffered 'long Covid' but believes that, for some people, it can take months to recover.
She said it's particularly the case for people who caught it in the first wave who weren't given steroids and other treatments which are more common now.
In 2013, Nidhi switched to working part-time as an NHS consultant so she could pursue her lifelong passion to be a filmmaker.
This also helped her avoid getting burned out from the gruelling day job.
She has made a number of short films as a producer and writer, one of which received funding from Film London.
Throughout the pandemic though she has often had to return to her work as a doctor full-time to help with the influx of patients.
She told the Recorder: "Mentally, everyone who works for the NHS is exhausted. No-one is taking all their time off and, during the second wave, there was a collective feeling of this endless cycle of 'work, eat, sleep, repeat'.
"In January, at the peak of the second wave, it was really hard but we are all just pulling it together to cope with it all.
"We are in this mode of just getting through today and dealing with tomorrow when it comes."
Since the hospital admissions have gone down, thanks to the lockdown and the successful vaccination programme, Nidhi said in the last month she feels she can finally breathe.
One trend she is seeing is non-Covid patients are coming into hospital much later with chronic illnesses and there are a lot of delayed diagnoses.
Nidhi has a background in infectious disease and, after witnessing the coronavirus firsthand as a doctor and with her personal battle with it, last year she decided to make a documentary to sound the signal on when the next pandemic might hit and how we should be ready.
She is aiming to start the film in June and has been researching it during her free time for the past year.
She is optimistic about the positive things that have come out of lockdown but hopes that when the next pandemic hits, collectively we will remember how bad this one was and be better prepared.
She said: "What we've learned is that we can really get stuff done as a species but it requires a massive kick up the backside.
"To go from having a new virus and within a year having a vaccine is an incredible feat. That has never happened before.
"That was only possible through collective efforts and the scientific community not accepting the concept of borders."
Depending on when the next pandemic hits, she thinks the countries that were hard hit this time will hopefully remember and respond accordingly in the same way countries like Korea and Taiwan handled Covid better because of the memory of dealing with the Sars outbreak in 2002.
She said: "If the next one hits in 20-30 years I think we'll have a good response to it but if it hits in 60 years then who knows?
"The Spanish flu is called the forgotten pandemic, so we can't make that mistake again."
One thing she is hopeful for now is the presence of the internet which should help keep the memory of Covid going for a long time.
"Covid will be analysed and researched for decades," she added.
Once filming begins she is hoping to have the film completed in six to eight months.
She has described the film as a "true labour of love, adding "if I don't make it I think I'll explode".
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