On this day one year ago, I was leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to go to London. Only thing is, I should have been heading back to Guangzhou, China. But through the whole week reports were coming out about the coronavirus in Wuhan.

It was a Friday when I left Davos. I remember earlier in the week seeing the news about this new virus. Worried, I decided to reroute and head back to London and ride this out. Little did I know what the next year would look like.

I remember remarking to a few people that this could be bad. It was the Chinese New Year holiday and lots of people were travelling outside of China. "This could spread far and wide" I thought. But there appeared to be little concern globally at this point.

I camped out at home in London. Over the next 6 weeks or so, things began to calm down in China. So I decided to head back to Guangzhou. At this point, things hadn't escalated in the UK. Little did I know it'd be the last time I would see my family for the foreseeable future.

I got back to China in early March after a brief stop in Singapore. A few days later, China closed their borders. Many people I knew were stuck outside. I made it back in. But it has meant that I've not been able to leave. A pic of the quiet streets of Guangzhou in early March

It's been almost a year since I've seen my family and my other half. Watching what has been unfolding in the UK from afar has been tough. You always dread waking up and finding out someone you know has contracted the virus. And it's hard to see the number of people who have died

I hope that the vaccine rollout is successful around the world and that we can bring this virus under control so we can all get back to doing the things that we perhaps took for granted before. Stay safe everyone.

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