A CHRISTCHURCH resident self-isolated in South Africa for 66 days after he planned a two-week trip to attend his dad’s funeral.

Leon Gentle flew to South Africa to attend his dad’s funeral on June 23, but didn't return to his family home in Highcliffe on August 28, over two months later.

Mr Gentle was originally meant to be in South Africa for two weeks but a series of complications significantly extended his trip, putting his life back home on hold.

He had his second Covid vaccine on June 8 in advance of his trip and flew to South Africa planning to return on July 9 but five days before his flight, he tested positive for the coronavirus, which meant that he couldn’t fly back home.

Mr Gentle said the rules at the time were that he had to have a negative test before he came back but his tests kept coming back positive week after week.

He said: “The rules then were that you had to use a PCR test and with a PCR test, once you’ve had Covid, you can still keep testing positive for up to 90 days.

“So every week I tested, I was still positive and then we found out (I don’t know if the rules had changed), that we could use a lateral flow test. So, I finally tested negative in early August and could fly back to the UK.”

Unfortunately, the long wait didn’t end there. At the time South Africa was a red list country so Mr Gentle had to quarantine in a hotel once he reached the UK, despite having mixed with both green and orange countries when his flight stopped off in Doha.

He said: “I checked into the quarantine hotel only to find out they use PCR tests and not lateral flow tests so I said to them, ‘look I’m going to keep testing positive’.

According to Mr Gentle the quarantine rules at the time were that you had to take a test on day two and on day eight and bizarrely on day two, he tested negative.

However, just six days later on day eight, he tested positive again meaning that he had to start the ten day isolation in the hotel again, despite the fact that he had already been there eight days.

He said: “I tried everything I tried to speak to the home office, the department of health and the department of transport but no one would listen.

“I even tried to get my MP to help but the most he did was speak to the people at the hotel saying that he was concerned and should he represent this at government level, to which they responded 'no', we are just following the government rules using PCR tests, we have to do it.

“Initially I thought somebody somewhere is going to have some common sense and is going to be able to help but eventually I got very frustrated and then I just had to give up and accept it.

“All of this time I had been away from my family, I hadn’t seen my wife or my children but I had no choice but to wait it out."

Fortunately, both Mr Gentle’s work and family supported him. The company he works for, Work Day, had a branch in South Africa and so he was able to work remotely, while he was there.

He said: "I don’t know what would have happened if I worked for another company and couldn’t come back, I probably would have lost my job so I was very lucky in that sense.

“My family and my wife were also very encouraging and supportive. I think in situations like that the worst thing you can do is panic, so we just tried to stay positive and remember that at the end of the day there are people who are much worse off than me.

“I knew that it wouldn’t be forever but it was still very frustrating especially in the hotel because once you test positive you’re not allowed to leave the hotel room, so I spent ten days in that hotel room and there wasn’t even a window to open, there was only air conditioning.

“If I had known what would happen, I would never have gone. I went there for my dad’s funeral but even he wouldn’t have wanted me to experience that struggle.

“It’s so good being back home, the kids are back to school and my wife is still working so life has continued but we’ve just taken a few days off and it’s been really good to catch up and spend time with them.”