The Ireland AM baker was left isolated during the Covid-19 lockdown as after years of smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease made her extremely vulnerable to the virus.Read more:Anne Doyle opens up about being suspended from RTE three times
"I’m very conscious of it now, but Covid nearly finished me.," Catherine told RSVP Magazine. "I nearly lost my life being locked in during Covid. Because of smoking in the past, I have COPD and my lungs are affected, so I was terrified of getting Covid. I was basically locked up at home all the time, and I got very lazy and I wasn’t going out, it was desperate stuff.
"So it’s only recently I’ve started to take my health very seriously, and I hope it’s not too late. The last few years have caught up with me, and it’s going to be a long haul, but I’m determined to make it."" I couldn’t breathe to be honest with you," she said of her decision to quit. "I’m not a whole ton better now after sitting around during Covid, but I had a terrible wheeze that has gone since I’ve stopped smoking.
"It was very funny, because some people would recognise me from Ireland AM and I went into a shop one day and the first thing the girl behind the counter said to me was, ‘I’m not selling you cigarettes!’. And I nearly died the other day when I saw the price of cigarettes, thank God I’m off them!" Before making a conscious decision to improve her eating and exercise habits, Catherine admitted that her diet was not good: "I would be snacking and not eating proper food, even though I’m very aware of the right foods to eat. I wasn’t thinking about it really. When you live on your own, it’s very difficult to cook for one person and I hate waste. I’d have eaten just to save throwing out food, even if I was full.