WHEN Deirdre Hargey collapsed at home in June, it was to bring an immediate pause to her time as an Executive minister, a role that was bringing her praise even from critics of Sinn Féin.
As the coronavirus pandemic hit in March the Sinn Féin MLA launched a food parcel service and put mitigations in place for those needing benefits to cope financially during the crisis.
However while she had many other projects linked up, the 40-year-old former Belfast lord mayor's plans were cut short by a sudden and life-threatening illness.
"When I went out in early June, it obviously wasn't ideal, I couldn't have foreseen it, but then I couldn't have foreseen this year," she said.
"I'd only signed as an MLA, then a few days later the deal broke, the institutions were reestablished and on the Saturday I got a phone call that morning asking would I take on a ministerial post.
"So I was straight in as a minister and then straight into a pandemic.
"I do have underlying conditions. I have lupus, so I have a blood condition and other conditions attached to that, but that's treatable.
"But about March time I started feeling real pain, what feel at first like indigestion, then I thought it was stress, it wasn't until the end of May going into June that I collapsed."
In severe pain, vomiting and with limited vision, the South Belfast assembly member was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital emergency department.
She was told she had an infection of the gallbladder and was sent home.
However within a few days her condition deteriorated further.
"I started to turn yellow, I couldn't eat and was nauseous and throwing up, so went back to hospital and it turned out my liver was failing.
"The gallbladder was septic and the gallstones had blocked a duct that goes into the liver, so my liver started to fail.
"Because of complications with my medication I was in hospital a week while they stabilised by blood before they could do the open surgery.
"My gallbladder was removed and they had to fix the blockage to allow my liver to function again."
Full of praise for the NHS staff the minister said: "It was during lockdown so staff were run ragged. Visitors weren't allow in, for me it was fine, I was only there a couple of weeks.
"You just really value the work they do, from the nursing staff, the doctors, your consultant and the auxiliaries."
Party colleague Carál Ní Chuilín carried out Ms Hargey's ministerial duties for the duration of her absence and for that she is grateful.
"I took enough time off to make sure I was recuperated and was strong enough, because once you're back into this position it's full steam ahead," she said.
"What this pandemic has really shown is that the economic system globally just isn't working, it isn't addressing the needs of many people, if you look at the disparity between rich and poor.
"The pandemic has exposed that in terms of healthcare workers, frontline workers, shop workers, often the lowest paid yet they are the ones who hold up the fabric of the communities we come from.
"For me I try and take an activist approach, because that's what I know, that's what I do.
"A pandemic is not something you're trained for, I did try to ensure we were getting support quickly to people, because no point in delivering it three or four months later."
During her absence the Department of Communities announced a strategy to deal with the housing shortage and enable the Housing Executive to borrow money and start building houses again.
The minister says this should be part of "building back better" as we emerge from the pandemic and she has ideas for city centre living and designing space to develop culture and arts.
"For me I want to make sure economic development and regeneration, works in the interest of people and places and communities," she said.
"There's a massive opportunity here and it will all depend on how I and other departments work with local government and communities to drive that vision.
"We're a five party executive and with any coalition government there will always be tensions, but a pandemic throws up the human side and how we need to respond...
"I want to work with all of them all and with people from outside the executive as well, the more outfacing we can be, the better," she said.
