Jools and Ian Payne with their children Holly, 13, Max, 16 and Naomi, 18.

Mum Jools Payne, 50, from Oswestry, runs Jools Payne Partnership communications. She lives with her partner, Ian, 51, and three children, Max, 16, 13-year-old Holly and Naomi, 18.

Jools writes . . .

“I’m staying in bed. I’ve got stiff aching joints, can’t move and am feeling as rough as a badger’s backside. Am I suffering an outbreak of mild paranoia? Is this just another bad rheumatoid day or the onset of swine flu? Reading the papers isn’t helping.

“Holly is the only one brave enough to bring me cups of tea. I haul myself out of bed to go to a wedding party in the evening and catch up with old friends. Within minutes the conversation turned to swine flu. Everyone seems so worried.

“Next day, I’m back in bed. Ian, Naomi and Max disappear to play cricket. Little nurse Holly is left to look after mum. The only way I can get downstairs is by sliding my back against the wall, taking one stair at a time.

“I get the to bottom stair to hear Max let out a huge sneeze in the hall. “Wash your hands straight away!” I yell, before launching into a ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ lecture.

“I arrive at work for my colleague, Victoria, to inform me her friend, with whom she spent Saturday, was confirmed as having swine flu yesterday. I send Ian to buy antiseptic hand gel, tissues, LemSip. Paranoid? Definitely! Next day, I feel a lot better.”