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Anger, fear and pride: Life as a Covid worker on the front line

Anne-Marie Tasker
BBC Look North
BBC Kelly Harwood has black hair worn in a bob. She is wearing a navy blue nurse's uniform and is looking at the camera. There are medical supplies and folders on shelves behind her.BBC
Ward sister Kelly Harwood stayed away from her parents for 18 months

Five years since UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the public to stay at home, three key workers recall what it was like to work through lockdown, exposed to the killer coronavirus.

"It still feels like it was yesterday", says ward sister Kelly Harwood, sitting in a staff room at Boston Pilgrim Hospital in Lincolnshire.

She is just yards from the ward where she and her colleagues came face to face with Covid-19 patients, at a time when there was no vaccine for the rapidly-spreading virus.

"We had a lot of frightened staff, a lot of frightened people, and we all had our families as well to think about," she adds.

Kelly had previously worked in A&E, so was more prepared for the onslaught of sick patients than some.

"In regards to seeing things that are quite traumatic that stay with you, I'd already dealt with a lot of things like that.

"Obviously, there are individual people that will always stay in your mind. I had [staff] who were new who were affected, people who lost their lives through Covid."

Staff nurse Anujkumar Kuttikkottu Pavithran died aged 44 in April 2020 after he had tested positive for Covid-19.

Kelly recalls the constant fear she might take the killer virus home with her.

"I didn't see my parents for a year and a half, so that was probably the hardest part for me personally," she adds.

"But I tend to focus very much on the good that we did.

"I'm really proud of what I did during Covid and I think what better legacy could you leave for your children, for them to be able to tell stories to their children, to say your grandmother did this.

"I feel privileged I could do something for our community."

Jill has short wavy grey hair and wears silver-rimmed glasses. She is looking straight at the camera and wears black scrubs. She is sitting in a communal room at the care home, with a painting, a box of jigsaws and a table and chairs behind her.
Care home worker Jill Packwood lost residents to Covid-19

Casting her mind back, Jill Packwood's first thought is "did that really happen":[]}