A coronavirus patient has urged others to take the pandemic seriously after he's been left fighting for his life in a hospital bed, describing the illness as an "evil thing".

Trevor Jones admits he didn't take Covid-19 seriously and he never thought he would catch it, but is now gasping for breath and has compared the effects of the virus to being drowned.

The 57-year-old from Bolton, Greater Manchester has said he never realised how much of an impact the disease would have on him.

Mirror Online reported that Trevor is now recovering from the virus, but is still out of breath just brushing his teeth and described his illness as "the worst time of my life by far."

Trevor Jones, 57, from Bolton has been suffering from Covid-19

Speaking to Manchester Evening News, he said: "It's an evil thing and it feels like it's trying to drown you. You're fighting non-stop and you feel like if you don't fight you're going to die.

"It's horrible. Anybody who says it's just a bit of man flu I hope they don't get it. I just feel if you can stay away from it until there's a vaccine, you've got to do it."

Just days after testing positive for Covid, Trevor found himself in a hospital bed receiving oxygen from a tank to help him breath at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

He lost one and a half stone in weight, developed problems with his eyesight and thought he would not survive the ordeal.

Trevor said: "I just didn't feel right.I knew there was something wrong.

"I went home and my wife told me I should go for a test. I got tested but things went downhill drastically and my lad had to take me to hospital.

"I felt like I couldn't breathe and they took a look at me and at first they thought I was well enough to go home. I can't explain how it effects you, I was so agitated that I couldn't sleep that night. I stayed up all night sat on the bed."

Trevor, who has suffered from mild asthma since he was young, tested positive for coronavirus in late September after having some trouble with shortness of breath.

Trevor Jones, 57, from Bolton has sent out a warning about Covid-19. The picture on the right shows him in hospital during treatment and the picture on the left shows him after four days of recovery.

The next day, his symptoms had worsened and he was struggling to breath so his wife took him back to hospital where he was transferred to a coronavirus ward.

By this time, he said he was slipping in and out of consciousness and was in desperate need of treatment.

Trevor said: "I was fighting for my life at that point. I couldn't breathe and they had me on oxygen. I thought I wasn't going to pull through.

"I was on a course of drugs and I was getting injections in my stomach every few hours. I was gasping for breath for days.

"It wasn't until the end of the week that I started to feel better and knew I wasn't going to die. But that was about seven or ten days after I first got it."

During his time in hospital, Trevor received a number of different medications but had serious concerns he might not survive the ordeal.

When he began to feel better, doctors slowly reduced his extra oxygen until he could breathe without it and advised his eyesight would return to normal in time.

Days after being discharged from the ward, he has started to recover but is still struggling with shortness of breath. Doctors say it is likely to take months for him to fully recover.

He said: "It's the worst time of my life by far. I'm still out of breath now just brushing my teeth."

Trevor admits he was shocked by how seriously ill the virus made him in such a short time and has urged others to take it seriously.

He added: "Maybe to young people they can get it and have a headache for a couple of days and move on.But for someone at my age with an underlying problem like asthma it's a killer. It could kill you.

"I absolutely didn't realise how serious it was. I thought I'd had it in March actually because I was ill coming back from Spain.

"The doctor asked me if I'd been to China but I'd only been to Spain. I was very ill but it wasn't even in the same league as this.

"I treated it as though I wasn't going to catch it and I thought even if I did it would only be a bit of a cough."

During his time in hospital, Trevor was on the wards with more than 60 other coronavirus patients, some who did not survive the virus.

But he is still met with people who do not believe his suffering when speaking out about his experience online.

He said: "The annoying thing about it is when you put these posts on Facebook to explain it to people and you get these people saying you're lying.

"I'm not lying. I couldn't get up at first walk to the toilet in the hospital so I was allowed to walk about to exercise my legs and I walked about the ward so I know exactly how many people are in there."

But he thanked the "absolutely fabulous" NHS staff working in the Covid wards and plans to donate blood plasma once he recovers to help other people suffering from the virus.