The year that changed everything and set Brits on a different path

It’s fair to say 2020 hasn’t panned out the way we anticipated, but Covid-19 has been the wake-up call many people needed to change their lives. Sophie Gallagher talks to those seeking a better future

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On 30 December, the penultimate day of 2020, Sam Adams, 53, boarded a flight at Gatwick airport to start a new life in Lanzarote. The life coach from Brighton has had, by anyone’s standards, a difficult year. In February her 10-year-old Jack Russell pug, Teddy, suffered heart failure and had to be put down, then in July her father, Royston, 87, died from cancer. Finally, in November, the cherry on the cake saw her divorce finalised – the conclusion of a year-long separation from her partner of seven years. These personal turmoils have all played out against the backdrop of a pandemic that has seen 60,000 dead and unemployment figures hit 1.6 million.

Adams is, by her own admission, someone who copes in times of adversity, an optimist when the chips are down. But she says the combination of these testing circumstances saw her reach breaking point. For the last 12 days of her father’s life she moved into her parent’s house to help her mum, Violet, cope with her dad’s declining health. She slept next to him in his bed, watching TV and talking to him, even when he was so sedated he could not respond.