IT has taken a councillor almost a year to fully recover after he was struck down with coronavirus and admitted to intensive care.

Councillor William Powell has gone from being seriously ill with Covid-19 to doing five kilometre runs, and is now hoping he can become Brecon and Radnorshire’s Member of Senedd for the Liberal Democrats this year.

Coun Powell, who has been Powys County Councillor for Talgarth, near Hay-on-Wye, since 2004, spent three weeks in intensive care in an induced coma.

He said he owes his life to the medics who treated him at Abergavenny’s Neville Hall Hospital last April – but said the virus is real, despite what some conspiracy theorists claim.

“It was touch and go, I think it was fair to say, and I was hugely lucky to be caught just in the nick of time, and I had fantastic healthcare from the NHS in the Neville Hall Hospital in Abergavenny,” Coun Powell, 55, said.

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He was admitted to hospital on March 26, the day the Clap for Our Carers started, and spent six weeks there in total.

He had “considerable difficulty walking” after the illness, but now he’s back running around five kilometres around a park in Talgarth where he lives, saying he’s probably fitter now than has been in “many years” after committing to being more active.

“My community rallied around, and my family were brilliant,” Coun Powell, added.

“Political colleagues and at least as much political opponents were immensely kind.”

Ten days after waking up from the coma, Mr Powell was given his mobile phone back. As he turned it back on, there was masses of messages from well-wishers.

“I am acutely aware, in the Welsh context it’s thousands and in the UK context it’s well over 100,000, of the people who have died as a result of Covid,” he added, saying he can’t help but think about people who had died.

“It very much exists, it’s absolutely a reality and in no means is a hoax, a stunt or anything as described by some of the conspiracy theorists – it’s absolutely real and it’s deadly.”