A RYDE woman has told of her experience of having coronavirus — from the way the illness affected her, to her daughter's test results mix-up, to the hassle she's had from the government's Test and Trace system.

Polly Gould originally fell ill with Covid symptoms in early to mid March, but was unable to get tested as it was before testing was available to the general public.

She was able to breathe properly, so didn't need to be admitted to hospital — the only place a test was available at the time — but was instead advised by 111 to manage her illness at home.

She was in bed for 18 days with a raging temperature, sharp pains in her head, a terrible cough and being hardly able to talk.

"I've never experienced anything like it, and I am 99.9 per cent sure it was coronavirus," she said.

"Because I wasn't tested, I'm not on the statistics as an IW case. I wonder how many others there are like me?"

Fast forward eight months.

Polly's daughter Lauren, who is studying interior design at Bournemouth University, came home for the weekend.

While on the Island, she heard some of her coursemates had tested positive for Covid-19.

Lauren had no symptoms, but got tested herself. It came back negative.

Polly's other daughter Jasmin, who is studying at the Institute of Contemporary Theatre in Brighton, decided to come home too, safe in the knowledge that Lauren had tested negative.

However, the test result was wrong.

Shortly after Jasmin got home, and within hours of Lauren's negative test result, Lauren received both texts and emails via the testing system, saying the result was actually positive.

It meant the entire family had to self-isolate and Jasmin couldn't go back to Brighton.

Sure enough, soon afterwards, Jasmin also tested positive. Neither of the sisters had many symptoms.

Despite being locked down with them, Polly didn't fall ill, and twice tested negative.

She said: "I can only imagine that having probably had Covid at the beginning, I have developed some sort of antibody to it.

"Mine is a case that needs to be explored, but you have to be in the care industry to get an antibody test.

"I would love to be a study, having lived through the illness then lived with people who had it, and I didn't get it.

"Mine is an interesting story for research on antibodies. But I cannot let my guard down as I don't know for sure if I am immune. I would hate to get it again.

"My daughters had it with mild symptoms, so will they be at risk of getting it again?

"It's a minefield for everyone, but people have got to have their wits about them."

Polly also believes the Test and Trace system is flawed, as she had two weeks of daily calls, and had to go through the same rigmarole every time, as none of the details were married up.

She was told differing amounts of time to self-isolate, and said if they had constantly rung her while she actually was ill, she wouldn't have coped with the stress.

"It's a messed-up system. I have had a gut-full of this year.

"I am telling my story because there are so many lessons I feel the government can learn from it," she said.