A tattoo artist has opened a smoothie bar offering healthy beverages after a brutal battle with Covid left him struggling to eat solids.

Jesus Godley, from Folkestone, feared he was going to die after falling seriously ill with the virus and spending more than a week in hospital on a ventilator.

During his recovery from the gruelling ordeal, the 31-year-old found it difficult to swallow his food - so he drank smoothies to ensure he took in vital nutrients and vitamins.

He is now launching new business Hel-Fe, at Princes Gate in Bayle Street, which he hopes to build into a health brand.

Mr Godley, who lives in Folkestone with his two German Spitz dogs called Pig and Pog, told KentOnline how the severity of his illness in 2020 took him by surprise.

“I was not the healthiest person but I didn’t think Covid was going to get me because I was relatively young and able-bodied,” he said.

“But then I did get it and it absolutely wiped me out.

“Randomly, I woke up one day and it was really bad. I was in pain and didn't know what was going on as I was delirious.

“But it got to the point that I couldn’t just be at home. I thought I was going to die.”

He was taken to hospital via ambulance and spent more than a week on a ventilator - used to help the most severely ill patients breathe.

Mr Godley then went through a long recovery, during which he says he felt like an elderly person as he was unable to work at his private tattoo studio MonoMaison in the high street.

“It was scary and a massive inconvenience,” he said.

“Most people were getting it and it was just like a stronger cold but for some reason it completely destroyed my immune system.”

Mr Godley says doctors were unable to diagnose exactly what the long-term effects of Covid on him were. But he now has to follow a strict diet, cutting out pre-packaged foods to avoid inflammation of skin conditions and feeling fatigued.

“I began to focus more on nutrition to find less chemically infused foods,” he said.

“I had to get into the habit of checking ingredients on everything.

“It’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be and I think that’s down to being so careful with what I eat.”

Mr Godley says he had “never really been into” smoothies before, but ended up having one every morning during his recovery.

“They'd make me feel a hell of a lot better and still every day now I’ll have one as a quick nutrient fix,” he said.

“In the past two or three months I’ve got to the point that I can eat more or less what I want as long as it’s not prepackaged.

“If I made the wrong decision over eating something, my skin would get bad, I’d feel really fatigued and feel really down. It was like a vicious cycle.”

Mr Godley has now opened Hel-Fe, which offers smoothies, juices and healthy food - right opposite one of Folkestone’s most popular takeaways, Super Pizza.

“There’s so many places around nowadays but it’s nice to have a place that you know is safe for people who want to try and look after themselves mentally and physically,” he said.

“I want to be able to educate people on what they’re eating too. You go places and can never be sure that an ingredient isn’t hidden.”

Folkestone was recently named by The Sunday Times as the best place to live in the south east - and Mr Godley says in recent years his hometown has become a bit of a hipster hotspot full of young people creating new things, which he sees as a positive.

“It’s still got that grittiness to it but at the same time you can come to this side of the town where there are more younger people making things happen,” he said.

“I think Folkestone does get a bit of a bad name from the older people who don’t seem to understand it - but if you immerse yourself in it, you meet so many people and find out so many positive things which are going on.

“It’s the perfect place to live.”

Hel-Fe is open seven days a week, from 8am until 5pm.