I’M writing in support of the doctors, nurses, paramedics and healthcare assistants that cared for my father, Bob.

Dad died of Covid-19 in Hospital on January 7.

He didn’t live in Halstead, but had visited us every weekend for the past 35 years and was known to many about the town.

Saying a final goodbye to him over the telephone was the hardest, most devastating and life-changing moment of my life.

He was there at my birth and raised me well, but I couldn’t hold his hand when he was dying.

A palliative care nurse held his hand as I spoke, she held a mobile phone to his ear and he squeezed her hand as I told him we loved him. For that moment, she was “me”.

I was standing in the middle of Courtaulds Sports Ground with dog walkers looking on. Imagine how frightened he was and alone but for the nurse sitting with him.

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I’ve heard people say that we cannot afford pay increases for NHS staff. But this Government can waste £37billion on “test & trace”, a contract given to the private sector but called “NHS Test & Trace” in an attempt to disguise that fact.

The NHS has been given the task to roll out the vaccine, thank god. So far it’s been a great success, an NHS success. NHS staff, thank you.

Remember when we all clapped on our doorsteps for NHS, social carers and key workers?

Who would want to work on a Covid ward, washing and feeding patients and risking your life for £18,000 a year?

Over 850 NHS staff have died of Covid. We owe them much more than a paltry 1 per cent pay rise, we owe them our lives.

Deborah Warren

Godwin Close, Halstead