Mum of cabbie, 57, who died from Covid-19 can’t grieve with family because of social distancing

27 March 2020, 21:07

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A devastated mum has said she is "all alone" after her son died of coronavirus because her family need to socially distance themselves from one another.

Maureen said her 57-year-old son Spencer, a London cabbie and lifelong Spurs fan, collapsed and died at his home earlier this week after contracting the virus.

Spencer's wife desperately tried to give him mouth-to-mouth while paramedics arrived, but he sadly could not be saved.

His shocked family can't even come together to comfort one another, as they need to distance themselves to stop the disease spreading further.

Maureen told LBC's Eddie Mair: "Nine days ago, my son had symptoms, a high fever and a cough, and he called 111 and they said isolate yourself, which he did.

"He was really poorly, he didn't get any worse but he didn't get any better for some time and by day seven he had just started to come round a little bit.

"Unfortunately on day seven he got really poorly on the afternoon and my daughter-in-law phoned the ambulance to come. They came within 10 minutes. In those 10 minutes he collapsed and died."

She added: "My daughter-in-law, who is high-risk because she has diabetes and asthma, tried to give him mouth-to-mouth herself, but it didn't work.

"The paramedics tried for about an hour and that didn't work either. So now he's with the coroner. "And it's such a shock because it was so sudden and so severe and my daughter-in-law now doesn't know what to do."

But Maureen's nightmare is not over, and she can't even comfort her daughter-in-law or 18-year-old granddaughter as the pandemic rages on.

"I've lost my son and now my family can't come near me," she said.

"The whole world is a very sad place at the moment isn't it.

"She's got to be isolated, I can't even see her now.

"You so much need somebody to hug you. We're all alone. She's alone, I'm alone.

"And when something like this happens you need your family around you. Everybody's really brilliant on the phone, but you can't get near each other."

The UK is currently under strict lockdown, with citizens only advised to leave their homes for some exercise or to buy essential groceries.

There have now been 759 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, and over 14,000 people have now tested positive.