Coronavirus: Freda aged 106 is Britain's oldest COVID-19 survivor

106-year-old Freda Hodgson has survived the coronavirus and has defied the odds after being nursed back to health at Whiteley Village care home.

Super centenarian Freda Hodgson got ill with COVID-19 symptoms on 5 April. She suffered a high temperature, coughing, a chest infection and had aches all over her body.

'I had pain in my knees'

"I had pain in my knees", she said.

"I couldn't turn over. Pain in my back. I couldn't raise myself up. My neck, I couldn't raise my neck... I didn't want to do anything."

A few days before Freda got ill, two other residents tested positive at Whiteley Village for COVID-19.

But after four days, Freda began recovering. Her temperature came down, the cough went and she was nursed to health until April 19.

Freda joins Connie Titchen in Birmingham, who was also born in September 1913 — as Britain’s oldest known COVID-19 survivor.

While her family were unable to visit her when she was sick, staff at Whiteley Village kept family informed.

Whiteley Village is a charitable care organisation set up in 1917 for people aged over 65 with limited financial means.

Rachel Hill, chief executive, at The Whiteley Homes Trust, said: "Our oldest resident, Freda Hodgson, age 106, was one of the suspected cases in late March/early April.

"Despite our requests, we were unable to get tests from Public Health England for these two individuals and we were advised to care for them as if they had the virus.

"Thanks to the professionalism of the nurses and carers and the exemplary care they provide, I’m pleased to say Freda is back to good health.

"It’s an extremely challenging time for The Whiteley Homes Trust right now caring for a community of almost 400 older people.

"Thankfully we’ve only had two confirmed cases. All five people have been nursed back to health thanks to the care and diligence of our amazing team of nurses and carers."

Freda has not only survived the coronavirus, she has also survived the Spanish Flu as a young girl.

carehome.co.uk visited Freda after her 106th birthday, last September, to hear talk about her colourful life story.

What she had to say was recorded in Episode 4 of the ‘Let’s Talk About Care’ podcast.

Her extraordinary life is now expected to be published in a book. Freda has received interest from a number of publishers who are keen to publish a memoir about her page-turning experiences.

The daughter of a baronet Sir William Willoughby Williams, she just missed out on inheriting a castle because she was a girl.

Strangely, she doesn’t really care because she confessed that Bodelwyddan Castle was too “draughty”.

Born a year before the start of WWI, Freda remembers hearing the bomb blasts outside during the war as she hid in the basement of her home.

She has met the Queen’s grandparents King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace.

But she is haunted by memories of her own daughter’s death and in the podcast talks about “terrorists” firing bullets at her home in Rhodesia, southern Africa, before Robert Mugabe’s rise to power.

Her eldest daughter died in 1979 when the aircraft she was in was shot down by terrorists.

Fleeing Zimbabwe, Freda left behind tobacco farmlands and her life to return to Britain in 1986 with only £1 in her purse due to exchange controls.

She has no less than 52 great grandchildren. Of her four children, one is alive today. Freda told carehome.co.uk her long life is simply because she is “stubborn”.

To listen to Freda talking about her life on Let's Talk About Care podcast visit: Episode 4: 'Freda & The 100+ club'.

click here for more details or to contact The Whiteley Homes Trust