Towards the end of Beauty And The Beast, Alan McHugh – His Majesty’s long-running and much-loved panto dame – breaks with tradition.
Instead of leading the audience in a rousing sing-along, he sings a tribute to the people of Aberdeen for their courage in the face of the pandemic, for the things endured and the loved ones lost.
It is a poignant moment that comes from the heart – because Alan fought his own three-month battle with Covid-19 that saw him in hospital struggling to breathe as blood clots filled his lungs.
And he was devastated at the loss of his close friend Andy Gray, fellow actor and panto star, after they both contracted the coronavirus at the same time, while working on a panto together in Milton Keynes last December.
“Basically, apart from his family, I was one of the last people to see Andy alive,” said Alan.
He is speaking out about his ordeal in the hope others will take the pandemic seriously and do all they can to keep themselves and others safe.
‘It’s real… it’s a killer’
“It’s real. It’s out there. It’s a killer, but it can be controlled and everybody has a responsibility,” he said.
Alan, who is starring as Dame Bella Buchan in Beauty And The Beast, was directing the panto in Milton Keynes under the most stringent of Covid safety measures from “swimming in sanitiser” to being strictly socially distanced while wearing masks.
But for all the precautions in the rehearsal room, two of the leads had contracted the virus. A change in England’s tier system meant the show wouldn’t have gone ahead anyway and the production was shut down on the Saturday before Christmas last year.
Alan said: “Andy asked if I would drive him home to Scone but because of his underlying medical conditions (he had battled leukaemia) I said only if we both test negative that morning and we did, so I drove Andy home.
“That’s my last memory of Andy, we laughed every mile of the way.”
But by Tuesday, Alan started to feel ill and went for a coronavirus test. The positive result came on Christmas Eve.
There is no way to describe it. If I was to imagine what being stabbed in the back was like, it was like that with every breath I took, every second of the day.”
“At which point I phoned Andy just as he was about to phone me to say he had tested positive as well, so we’re pretty sure we got it in Milton Keynes. Andy went into hospital on Boxing Day and didn’t come out,” said Alan, whose wife and son also tested positive.
Alan said after five days of feeling “crappy” he thought he was getting better, when he was suddenly struck by terrible pain that left him in tears.
“There is no way to describe it. If I was to imagine what being stabbed in the back was like, it was like that with every breath I took, every second of the day.”
Blood clots on the lungs
After calls to NHS 24, Alan was told by a consultant he would be taken into hospital that night.
He was told his symptoms could be one of three things, an enlarged heart, scarring on his lungs or – the best he could hope for – blood clots on the lungs.
“I said, seriously, that’s the best?”
He arrived in hospital at midnight in “indescribable pain”. Medics thought he was having respiratory problems because of his shallow breathing.
They said: ‘Take the hit, sit and get well for the next two months before you even think of going for a walk’.”
“But I was only breathing so shallowly because to breathe deeply increased the pain. It was a choice rather than an affliction.”
After a battery of tests it was confirmed Alan had multiple blood clots on his lungs caused by Covid as well as pneumonia.
“I was only in hospital for one day. The day I went in was the end of my isolation and they said: ‘We’re not keeping you in because all you will do here is be in pain and Covid is running wild in this place. So we’re going to give you blood thinners and Cocodamol, you will be as well being in pain at home’.”
Alan, who praises the service he was given by the NHS as fantastic, said there was nothing else that could be done for him, other than wait for the clots to get smaller and disperse, which can take up to three months.
“They knew I was very active but said to me the danger was that I try to do too much too soon physically. They said: ‘Take the hit, sit and get well for the next two months before you even think of going for a walk’.”
“So that’s what happened. It took three months almost to the day. By the beginning of April, I was okay,” said Alan.
Heartbroken Andy didn’t make it
But during this emotional roller coaster, Alan was left heartbroken when Andy didn’t make it.
“We were texting and phoning every day and on Christmas morning, Andy sent me a video of himself in a Santa hat… but his breathing was horrendous, which was worrying us all.”
Andy went into hospital on January 2, put on a ventilator and not long after put into a medically-induced coma. He never came out of it.
Andy was such a larger than life personality. It’s hard to contemplate a world without him in it.”
“During the next four to five weeks, every day I was sending him voicemails in the hope he would get them one day,” said Alan. “Everyone was sending messages and recording messages. Tamara, his partner, and Clare (his daughter) were sending them to the hospital staff and they were holding them up to his ear and playing all these messages.”
But Andy lost his battle and Alan still keenly feels that loss.
“Andy was such a larger than life personality. It’s hard to contemplate a world without him in it. It can still ambush me. For the first few weeks afterwards I was saying to myself: ‘Is this a dream’, because it felt so unreal, I questioned it a couple of times.”
A year on, and Alan is fully recovered and back in the place he loves, the stage of His Majesty’s, delighting audiences once again as not only the star, but also the writer and director of this year’s panto, Beauty And The Beast.
He stressed the show is being staged with Covid-safety measures firmly in place for everyone, from the cast to the audience before its run ends on Christmas Eve – its run cut short by a week due to new Scottish Government restrictions.
Alan says his tribute to the people of Aberdeen – sung to the tune of the Northern Lights – was his way of acknowledging what all of us have been through during the pandemic. Himself included.
Nobody is immune from coronavirus
And Alan hopes sharing his personal experience of Covid will encourage everyone to do what they can to stay safe, especially as Omicron kicks in.
The only way to bring it to an end sooner rather than later is to adhere to the restrictions and follow the guidelines. It’s people’s lives we are dealing with.”
“I can’t tell anyone what to do, I can only plead with them what to do. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what me, my family or Andy and his family have gone through,” he said.
“Take it seriously. Have respect and personal responsibility for yourself, your family, and all those strangers out on the street. Because you can be the next one. Nobody is immune from this.
“The only way to bring it to an end sooner rather than later is to adhere to the restrictions and follow the guidelines. It’s people’s lives we are dealing with.”
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