Judith Warner, Author

I was fortunate enough in the winter of 2021 to be offered a place on the Iyengar Yoga (UK) / York St John University 10-week pilot study into restorative yoga for sufferers of Long Covid. As a March 2020 Longhauler, my spirit and body were both suffering from extreme fatigue and a lack of medical help, causing a profound lack of hope and agency. From the first online meeting with Lorraine and her superb team this all changed. The experience became a unique weekly oasis from feeling helpless and hopeless. The free sessions sculpting each individual participant’s needs was quality therapy beyond belief; their abilities to support, adjust, invent and deeply care about us all was wonderful. I have continued this year on Lorraine’s therapy class, which has helped me through the extra trauma of finding out this year that I also had Pernicious Anaemia and would mostly have to manage my own way through that journey too. Lorraine and team have been beside me all the way, and slow but profoundly encouraging progress has been maintained. Diet advice, breathwork and the tailored yoga positions have been a lifeline. And even enabled me to have enough strength to interact with my granddaughters as a relatively normal granny – and deal with the PEM afterwards! I cannot praise and thank them enough.