Covid-19 survivor Barra Fitzgibbon: ‘They called me ‘soldier’ – the only one to wake up among the 60 ICU patients they had treated over the previous 12 days’

I never imagined that my name would ever be attached to phrases like ‘first survivor’ or ‘poster boy for survival’, or indeed ‘playwright’! I’m just Barra Fitzgibbon, a Dubliner who moved to London 20 odd years ago to make a life, and raise a family. But in March 2020, at the very start of the UK’s Covid-19 crisis, I found myself thrust into the middle of a battle for my life, one I came terrifyingly close to losing.