It’s a new year, a new beginning, but we are all still in the same grip of Covid-19, wondering how much longer we will have to endure it.

In mid-2020 my left retina detached from the back of my eye. I had eye surgery three times in six months to fix it (and I’m hoping that now it stays stuck). On the morning of my second surgery, the day after I had found out that the retina had come away again, I couldn’t help thinking about the ladders on Everest and how I had no choice but to do something tha...