A “forgotten” corner of society still shielding from Covid has told of the mental turmoil of isolating and the vile abuse they can suffer for wearing a mask.

While social distancing rules were lifted more than two years ago, with life returning to normal for most people in Kent, those deemed clinically extremely vulnerable are still taking precautions.

They have been warned by doctors that catching the virus could prove fatal, so they rarely see friends and family – and are unable to hug them when they do.

On the rare occasions they venture outside, they even face vitriol from members of the public for continuing to cover their faces.

Rob Boxall, from Herne Bay, is still selflessly shielding to protect his vulnerable wife and daughter from catching Covid.

The 57-year-old told KentOnline that if he needs to nip to the supermarket for a pint of milk, he has to meticulously plan the trip to avoid people.

But he cannot always swerve unwanted encounters.

“I have been abused in the street for wearing a mask,” he said.

“There was a fella who walked along and said ‘take your f****** mask off, you ****’.

“I thought ‘what harm is it doing you?’.”

Mr Boxall’s wife Mandy, 61, is in remission from blood cancer, while his daughter Mollie has cerebral palsy and does not have the antibodies to fight Covid.

They have been shielding at home since the pandemic hit three-and-a-half years ago.

“There is no social life and I have to talk to friends on the phone,” Mr Boxall said.

“If I do meet a friend it is in my back garden, so you have to choose a day with good weather.

“Once winter hits, our lives become more secluded and isolated.

“You have your good days but isolation is a very lonely existence.

“You do feel, with the way society has gone back to normality, you have been forgotten about.”

During the pandemic, the NHS identified about 2.2 million people as being clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), with 60,975 of them in Kent.

But just two months after so-called Freedom Day in July 2021 – when regulations on social distancing, wearing face masks and isolating were dropped – the government’s advice to shield ended.

So for the past two years, those with weakened immune systems have been forced to make their own rules.

Mrs Boxall is among those warned by doctors they could die if they catch Covid.

She became ill at Christmas in 2019 and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma - a type of blood cancer - on January 30, 2020.

Her chemotherapy was completed in June the same year and she started cancer maintenance treatment, which wiped her immune system out.

“Once you have blood cancer, it is treatable but not curable,” Mr Boxall said.

“She has had seven vaccines against Covid but has no antibodies.

“We were told if she caught the virus, she would not fare well – which was a nice way of saying she would not survive.”

Although Mrs Boxall is in remission from cancer, the threat of Covid remains after her gruelling treatment.

It means the former childminder is still shielding along with her husband, whose devotion to protecting his family cost him his livelihood.

“My main priority was keeping my family safe, so I lost my job...”

Mr Boxall, who was employed as a care worker, said: “I was signed off sick in February 2020 with stress, anxiety and depression as I was trying to deal with my wife’s cancer.

“I was furloughed and [my employers] got to a point where they allowed me to work from home and do the secretarial side of care.

“In June last year, they said I would have to come back to work or they would let me go.

“My main priority was keeping my family safe, so I lost my job. I had to sign on to Universal Credit.”

Due to shielding, the couple and 31-year-old daughter Mollie have missed precious moments with close members of the family, including grandchildren.

“To not be able to hug your daughter and say everything will be fine is very difficult for us...”

They have another daughter who lives in Faversham with her two sons, aged five and 18 months.

“We see them as much as we can but a lot of it is socially distanced,” said Mr Boxall.

“She works at the Abbey School and for her to come and stay it has to be in the school holidays.

“They isolate for two weeks before they come so the impact it has had on them is massive.

“My grandson was diagnosed with autism and to not be able to hug your daughter and say everything will be fine is very difficult for us.”

Another Kent resident who has been warned that catching Covid would put his life at risk is 37-year-old professor Martin Eve.

He has had rheumatoid arthritis for 20 years, with the therapies to treat the condition causing him to develop immunodeficiency and ultimately kidney failure.

Prof Eve started shielding in early March 2020 – before there was official guidance.

“I was under the care of immunology at the hospital and they said they did not know anything about the virus and it would be best if I did not catch it,” he told KentOnline.

“I was having therapy where they replace my immune system.

“I was on a ward of people receiving that [treatment] and you looked around and saw pure terror in everyone's eyes.

“For years we had feared a pandemic coming along, and here it was.”

Since then, Prof Eve and his wife have been shielding at his Broadstairs home to protect him from the virus.

It means people cannot visit them unless they have isolated themselves and completed a test.

The couple do not go to busy places, but in recent months they have visited some quiet shops and worn an FFP3 mask - the highest grade.

They now avoid public transport as Professor Eve believes he caught Covid while travelling via train to a hospital appointment.

“I was hospitalised for a month between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023,” he said.

“The doctors said ‘do not get it again’.

“It was pretty serious. After 25 days I had not cleared the virus.”

Prof Eve has also missed out on special moments with his family and friends.

Two of his nieces were born during the pandemic and he has not been able to enjoy their early years.

“My brother is very understanding but it is disappointing for everyone,” he said.

“Some of my friends are brilliant, and understand it and get it, but I have lost touch with other friends who can’t do the isolating.

“I used to enjoy going to the pub, an evening out with friends and now it is a distant memory.”

The government’s online guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from Covid says the success of the vaccine programme means the requirement for shielding is “no longer necessary”.

“People think I might be being paranoid, but I saw what it did to me last time...”

Those who are part of the CEV cohort are “no longer at substantially greater risk than the general population”, it says. They are advised to follow the same guidance as everyone else on staying safe and preventing the spread of the virus.

The government advises avoiding contact with people who have Covid symptoms and asking visitors to your home to take extra precautions, such as keeping their distance, wearing a face mask or asking them to take a test.

Other guidance includes working from home where possible, reducing the time spent in crowded places and regularly washing your hands.

But Prof Eve, who worked at the University of London’s Birbeck College but is now on secondment and works from home, has decided to continue shielding as he fears he may not be so lucky if he were to catch Covid again.

Cases of the virus and hospital admissions have been rising in recent weeks, but are nowhere near the peaks seen during the pandemic.

Although Prof Eve says shielding has been “extremely depressing”, at other times he says it has been “reassuring” as he knows he is better protected against the virus.

“People think I might be being paranoid, but I saw what it did to me last time,” he explains.

“The medics cannot say I should shield, but they have said ‘do not get it again as it might kill you’.

“They completely understand.

“They feel their hands are tied by the guidance that there is no shielding.

“When I tell them I have made this decision, they believe it is incredibly sensible.

“There is no legal or employment support for people to do this.

“That was the worst thing when they got rid of shielding. The danger hadn’t gone away – they had enough of it.”

A report published this month by Versus Arthritis and the University of Manchester reveals evidence of the brutal toll Covid shielding had on people’s lives, including some who were forced to stop living with their children and others who lost their jobs.

Prof Eve said: “My employer has been helpful and I can do my job in that way, but I know people who have had to sell their home because they have not had help from their employer.”

The report also reveals how shielders feel society treated them like “second-class citizens” after lockdowns were lifted and shielding support was removed.

Versus Arthritis is asking the Covid Inquiry to acknowledge the “serious failings” of the government in shielding and that more can be done to protect vulnerable groups now and in the future.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We will consider all recommendations made to the department in full.”

Those with weakened immune systems want more measures put in place to help protect them. But what exactly do they want to see?

Prof Eve believes enforcing face masks again would be “difficult” and, if there was a future pandemic, it might be hard to reintroduce them as there “has been so much hatred against them”.

However, he believes they should be mandatory in hospital and healthcare settings as they are supposed to be “places to heal and not make you sick”.

“They are full of vulnerable people,” he argues.

“Surely it makes sense to introduce them in those situations to protect people.”

For those shielding now, there is hope a new antibody drug could enable them to live normal lives in the future.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which helped develop one of the Covid vaccines, was working on its Supernova trial earlier this year.

The results are yet to be published but they could lead to a new antibody drug to help fight Covid-19 infection in immune-compromised people.

Mr Boxall is among those who are hopeful it could lead to the end of shielding.

“If the Supernova trial works and it is passed, there is the possibility we could come out of it,” he said.

“There would be anxiety to start with as you become used to your circumstances. It is like imprisonment as you become institutionalised to it.”

Mr Boxall, his wife and daughter are set to have a new Covid-19 vaccine tomorrow that targets the Omicron XBB 1.5 subvariant.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in September.

In three weeks, the Boxalls intend to pay privately for antibody tests. And if the results are good?

“We could probably lead a normal life again,” he says.

“It would ease my mental health problems. When you look back at the first lockdown with the mental health problems that caused, three years does take its toll.”