Following his recent recovery from COVID-19, television personality and philanthropist Joel Ghansham is now using his experience to educate others about the virus.
Speaking to Sunday Stabroek recently, Ghansham said that he started to experience a cough and fever on February 27.
Although his relatives and friends, including a number of health care workers, told him that he probably caught a “flu,” as the days went by Gansham’s symptoms worsened and he decided to get a COVID-19 test.
An antigen test subsequently confirmed that he was COVID positive. “By the time I had that, I started to be weak—I mean ridiculously weak! Headache, fever, fatigue and all those things and I just had to go to bed,” Ghansham said.
Ghansham was required to home isolate for 10 days. He explained that in an effort to safeguard those around him, he isolated himself in the upper flat of his house. “It was mind boggling. It was stressful. It brought you to emotion, it brought you to tears and it teaches you about life. You make a lot of promises to God,” he said.
For someone who is always active, Ghansham said that being confined to one space for 10 days was difficult to cope with.
During that time, he said he did a lot of research to educate himself about COVID-19, while also trying homemade brews, such as ginger and honey lemon teas and daily exercise.
He also continued his charity work remotely. “Even though I had COVID, I was sending food, I was sending groceries, I was sending things for kids and families… It didn’t stop me,” Ghansham related.
Like many others, Ghansham is unaware of where he might have contracted the virus. However, he suspects that it was during his humanitarian work.
“Somehow, through my quest to help others, I can’t tell you exactly where I got it from because that would be really hard because I deal with a lot of people while trying to be safe,” he noted.
Despite his work, he said the headache and lack of physical strength took a toll. “Like just to shower myself, I had to hold and grab just to shower and brush my teeth,” he noted.
Apart from the physical impact the virus had on his body, Ghansham said that he was also mentally affected.
“It made me depressed… I had to force myself to read, to pick up the computer, shower, force myself to eat. I was sleeping on average fifteen hours per a day but I had to self-motivate,” he explained.
Apart from his charity work, Gansham has also been involved in the national fight against the virus as part of the National COVID-19 Task Force, on which he said he has served for about three months.
His role, he noted, is focused mainly on providing emotional support to persons in need.
“We have got a good team that appeal to people from a medical standpoint and I take the role of appealing to them from an emotional standpoint. From one human being to another. To get into their emotions, to explain to them how bad it is, what is going on and now that I had COVID and thankfully out of it, I am using that firsthand experience to talk about it… now I can speak from the heart because I went through it,” he further explained.
Although he was found to be cleared of COVID-19 when he tested again, Ghansham noted that the healing process can be a long one, which he is still going through. “…My symptoms went away but after the symptoms you still feel a little bit tired. I am not 100 percent back to normal. My head still hurts and my throats itches from time to time,” he stated.
Vaccination
With the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines across the country, Ghansham said he is currently working with the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) to encourage persons to get vaccinated.
“I am talking, I am doing research, I am telling people what to do….I have joined CIOG in the quest for people to get their vaccine,” he said.
He was advised to wait a minimum of three months before he considers taking the vaccine. However, Ghansham is encouraging persons who are eligible to get vaccinated.
He said many people are still denying the existence of COVID-19 and are going about their daily routine without putting on a face mask or physically distancing themselves from others.
Before he was diagnosed, Ghansham said he took every possible precaution. “I don’t go to parties. I don’t hang out. I don’t have people over at the house. I haven’t seen my friends in months but I just had to. I had to make the grand sacrifice not only for me but for others,” he explained.
Having survived the disease, Ghansham now advocates even more strongly for people to protect themselves from the coronavirus. He is asking persons to do recognise the seriousness of COVID and follow all guidelines. “Please listen, please read, please educate yourselves. Don’t be selfish. Educate your kids, educate your neighbours, educate your friends, educate your enemies,” he pleaded.
