A well-known face in the municipality is giving back to others after recovering from COVID-19.
Chatham resident Angelo Ligori was diagnosed with the virus towards the end of March. A senior advisor at Greenfield Global in Chatham and spin class teacher at the YMCA, Ligori was the sixth confirmed case in the municipality.
Ligori previously referred to having COVID-19 as being the worst experience he's ever had in his life. However, now that he is doing well with his recovery process, he was inspired to help out others who are dealing with what he went through.
Ligori recently donated plasma through Canadian Blood Services, something he was eligible to do a month after testing positive for the virus.
"It's been quite a journey and I decided to do something to help someone out," he said.
Ligori had to go to London for the process, which he said took about 45 minutes to complete. Being a regular blood donor, he said donating plasma was a similar experience.
"It's like donating blood, the only difference is there's a centrifuge machine beside you. It takes the plasma out and returns the red blood cell back into the same needle," he explained. "So it's kind of neat. First, you donate then feel this cool pressure stream coming back into your arm."
According to Ligori, the antibodies in the plasma will be used to help someone in the hospital who is currently battling the novel coronavirus.
"The idea is the antibody will help a person fight COVID-19," he explained.
Ligori said he is pretty well back to normal now and has gotten his weight back up to what it was pre-COVID-19 as well as gotten back his sense of smell and taste. Meanwhile, he hopes to donate plasma again in the near future.
"[I] probably will go one more time," he said. "You can go to donate plasma every seven days actually. But it's up in London so its a big affair for me. I'll likely do one more depending on how things go."
Ligori said the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit closely monitored and worked with him throughout his time with the virus. He added that it was his conversations with public health officials that inspired him to turn a negative situation into a positive one.
"It's been a good journey and I'm trying to do something to turn it all into a positive because March and April was a pretty dark time for the whole family."
