The English National Opera (ENO) is rolling out a UK-wide program to help patients recover from Long COVID-19 by teaching them breathing techniques and how to manage anxiety.

A unique trial called 'ENO Breath' has been carried out with a dozen people who contracted the coronavirus last year and are still unwell.

Every week participants have been taken through vocal exercises online by English National Opera singing coaches. Now up to 1,000 patients across the UK will be able to benefit from the lessons.

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Shamira Farshid caught COVID-19 a year ago and says there were times when she could barely take a breath.

"One night I even wrote my will because I really couldn't breathe," she said.

She still isn't feeling 100 percent, but after six weeks of breathing and singing classes she's finally starting to feel better.

"I used to use my inhaler a lot but since I started the 'ENO Breath' my lungs are improving and for the last three weeks I haven't used the inhaler even once."

Jenny Mollica, from the Learning and Participation Department at ENO, says in the early days of the pandemic when the medical profession started to realize that breathlessness and anxiety were key symptoms of Long COVID-19, the opera company thought they could help.

ENO experts have been working alongside respiratory specialists from the UK's National Health Service to develop a program to empower people to manage their disease.

Mollica says 90 percent of those who took part in the trial said the techniques had helped them.

"When you pare opera back as an art form, it's rooted in breath," Mollica explains.

"Singers and vocal specialists have to be skilled at filling buildings with their voices totally unamplified, so understanding breath control underpins the work of our company." 

Before starting the singing program, Shamira Farshid couldn't walk for longer than half an hour without running out of breath. Now she can manage three times that.

So with gentle, soothing music, including lullabies, ENO is supporting Long COVID-19 sufferers on their difficult journey back to health.