'I miss my girls': Mum's heart-wrenching sacrifice to keep up the fight against coronavirus

The story of mum-of-four Rachel Sutcliffe, who caught the coronavirus Covid-19, lays bare the heroic sacrifice she and thousands of others are making to care for others during the pandemic.

“We just don’t know enough about this virus yet to let our guard down and if people start to weaken on the lockdown we are going to undo all the good work we have done over the past six weeks.

“That is why I shared my story. We are all having to make sacrifices.”

In a Facebook post, which has since been widely shared, she revealed how she took the difficult decision to send her children away to keep them safe while she was working on the front line. She also revealed how she has since tested positive for the virus.

She wrote: “I care for some very sick people, some of them very lonely. Some of them could well be your family and friends.

“But 27 days ago, I made the heart-wrenching decision that I would send my girls to my parents and stop having contact with them.

“I have cried every day not being able to hold them, but I knew that, by working at the hospital, I posed a great risk to them.

“And yes, they are young and healthy, but what if they pass this deadly virus onto my parents as well? How would I live with myself if that happened?

“I had the children crying on the phone to me constantly that they missed me.

“Of course, I missed them even more, but I had to say to them it was the right decision.

“I do nursing because I love it and I want to help others. It’s been great to be part of such an amazing team.”

She went on to describe the emotional toll the fight against Covid-19 has taken on her and her fellow medics.

“Suddenly, we have patients who were meant to go home but were struck down with this virus,” she said.

“We went from making plans for them going home to me ringing their loved ones, saying they had deteriorated suddenly and then they had died.

“We went from saving lives to feeling helpless. And then, one by one, we have seen our colleagues fall – succumbing to the dire effects this virus can have.

“I can’t describe to you how heart-wrenching this feels.

“Suddenly, your heart begins to break and you begin to feel your vulnerability as a human being.”

Rachel, who has no underlying health conditions, ended up in A&E herself after suffering symptoms of the coronavirus for 10 days.

She said: “I started with pains in my chest. I thought at first I had just hurt a muscle at work. Then I had shortness of breath and then later flu-like symptoms. It came on so quickly.

“It escalated and I had to go into hospital to get checked out and they gave me anti-biotics for a secondary chest infection.”

She said the virus left her feeling weak - just like a bad case of flu.

“I could only get out of bed to go to the toilet,” she added.”It really knocked me for six.”

Although she still has a cough, Rachel said she is feeling much better and is looking forward to getting back to work when she is clear of symptoms.

But she stressed the importance of everyone doing their bit to stop the virus spreading.

She said: “We have seen in the hospital how the virus affects people so differently. We have had people with underlying medical conditions getting in mildly and normal fit and healthy people getting it quite seriously.

“That is why it is important to shield people. I wanted to protect my children.

“With me going into hospital and working with patients who have coronavirus I did not want to risk bringing it home and passing it on to my parents so I made the decision to leave the children with my parents.

“It is a very important message to carry on self-isolating. Since posting my story online, I have had many messages of support and a few people saying that it has made them think twice about going out. If I can change one person’s mind I will be happy.”

And she revealed in her post how the “hardest part” was before she revealed she had caught Covid-19 to her children and “pretending I’m okay so they don’t know I’m unwell”.

She said: “They cry with worry about me catching coronavirus so how do I tell them that mummy has actually caught it when I promised I’d be okay? I (felt) like a fraud not being honest with them.”

There have been 109 deaths at the Vic where the patient was diagnosed with Covid-19. Patients with symptoms are kept apart from those without.

Rachel’s “don’t give up” on the lockdown plea came as Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said it was too soon to ease the social distancing restrictions.

He said: “All our efforts, hard though they might be, have begun to pay off. But this is not the time to say: ‘We’ve done a good job, we need to stop complying with social distancing.’”

And Rachel added: “Don’t let something tragic happen before you take it seriously. We have to make sacrifices – big sacrifices at the time but small in the grand scheme of things. Stay at home and tell everyone else to do the same.

“We have to fight this together.”