How we met: ‘He moved in after a month together to care for me – then he kept being amazing’

Spending the summer of 2020 recovering from severe Covid-19 wasn’t something that Adelina had expected to be doing in her late 30s. Before the illness, she ran a tech consulting business and had a busy life. “The virus left me unable to breathe and I was hospitalised in March. That led to the breakdown of my previous relationship,” she says. In an effort to regain her health, Adelina started walking and getting fitter near where she lived in Cambridge. She joined a dating app in November, writing on her profile that she liked nature and had “just about died from Covid” a few months before.

Alan, who lived in Milton Keynes, responded. “I said it was a bit of an abrupt change in tone from talking about nature walks and asked how she was doing now,” he says. Liking that he had read her profile, rather than sending a generic hello, Adelina started chatting to him. A few weeks later they agreed to meet for a walk.

“When I first saw him, I thought: oh my God, this guy looks a bit feral with his long beard,” she says, laughing. But they clicked straight away. “She was bright and bubbly, and very cheery,” says Alan. “I’m an analyst for a car company, so I’d been working at home for months. It felt like a nice change.”

Over the weeks they enjoyed more walks together and bubbled through the autumn lockdown. “It’s hard to explain but Alan just felt like home,” she says. “He’s a very empathetic person and made me feel really safe.”

At Christmas, Alan intended to see his family in Scotland but the last-minute lockdown made it impossible. They spent the festive period watching films instead at Adelina’s. “We got on so well and had so much fun.”

After Christmas, Alan returned home and Adelina began to feel unwell. She was suffering from breathlessness and exhaustion – the same symptoms as months earlier. Over the next few weeks, she became progressively worse and was in and out of hospital. “At first, nobody knew what was wrong, but by February I could barely walk and my doctor told me it was long Covid.”

Although they had only known each other for a month, Alan continued to visit regularly. “He essentially moved in to care for me, which is not something I ever expected. I assumed he would leave. He even washed me and fed me with a spoon,” she recalls.

Yet Alan says he loved their time together, especially on Adelina’s good days. “She made me laugh and, if she could manage it, we would go out and have an ice-cream in the park or get a takeaway,” he says. They became an official couple in March 2021. “She wrote me a little letter asking me to be her partner and offering me a house key,” he remembers. Adelina says she was really nervous about asking. “I didn’t want to trap him with an ill person. My friends pointed out that he kept coming back and doing all these amazing things for me.”

As Adelina’s health continued to deteriorate, she started to research treatments online. She discovered that she had a vitamin B12 deficiency and low potassium levels; factors likely to be hampering her recovery. After a series of B12 injections and iron infusions, Adelina slowly began to feel better. By summer 2022, she could return to most of her usual activities.

“I can’t believe I’m still alive,” she says. “Alan took a huge gamble coming to see me when I was ill, but hopefully the risk paid off. He made me want to fight. Having someone in your corner really means a lot.” She recently proposed to Alan on a beach in France and the couple plan to move in together soon.

“Adelina is so smart, capable and interesting,” says Alan. “She is very much her own person, but we enhance each other when we are together. She challenges me to be more adventurous and I think I calm her down at the right times.”