A woman has been left devastated as four family members have died with coronavirus after a meet-up on Christmas Day.
Tracy Latham, from Mackworth in Derby, has described the "horrendous" ordeal after losing her partner, his parents and another family member who had all contracted Covid-19.
The family had been shielding since March but met on Christmas Day following the easing of restrictions which allowed households to meet for one day.
The 50-year-old was due to marry her 48-year-old partner Darren Fisher in July this year after being together for 12 years.
The mum-of-three claimed her partner caught the virus when he went to his parents' house for just two hours, Derbyshire Live reports.
She believes that the family members would not have contracted coronavirus if the government had stopped people meeting up on Christmas Day.
Over the course of the following week, Darren, his parents Pat and David Fisher, aged 79 and 82, and another family member, who was in his early 70s, all tested positive for the virus.
They have all since passed away, while another of Darren's uncles, Geoffrey, who also caught coronavirus, is still recovering after becoming seriously ill.
Tracy explained that the only member of the family who had an underlying health condition was Pat, who had diabetes.
"We don't really know who passed it on," she said.
"Darren popped in to them for a couple of hours to say hi, as they hadn't seen each other for ages. It was a quick flying visit at around 9pm."
Darren's mother Pat fell and hurt her leg on Boxing Day and was admitted to the Royal Derby Hospital the following day.
Tracy added: "She began to feel tired and rundown.
"A few days later, she tested positive for coronavirus as her condition got worse."
Pat received her positive test result just days after arriving at hospital, ruling out the possibility of catching it on the ward.
"Darren got a bit of a cold and began to struggle to breathe," Tracy said.
He was really struggling to breathe and we phoned an ambulance on December 29."
Tracy was left hoping his condition would get better, but the situation did not improve.
"On the Friday I got a phone call from Darren to say they were going to put him on a ventilator," she said.
"I told him to get himself right, and those were the last words I said to him. He was on the ventilator for nine days.
"At one stage it looked really bad and they said I need to come in and speak to him. I was there saying 'you really need to fight this'."
What Darren wouldn't have known at that point is that both of his parents had already passed away, with David dying on January 4 and Pat dying on January 6.
"His uncle is in the next bay along at the same time," Tracy added.
"I said 'you've got to keep fighting'. It was absolutely horrendous."
Sadly Darren did not recover, and passed away on January 11, with another family member dying several days afterwards.
Pat and Darren died at the Royal Derby Hospital in the space of a week while David, who had dementia, passed away at a respite home he had been placed in while Pat was in hospital.
David tested positive for Covid after he died and Tracy believes he is the person who passed it onto Geoffrey, who went round to help him while Pat was in hospital.
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For now Tracy is left thinking of the wonderful memories she had with Darren and his parents.
"He helped me bring my three kids up for 12 years," she said.
"He had worked at Sainsbury's for 18 years and people would always say he had a smile on face.
"They were a lovely family - the best mum and dad you hope for. Their door was always open for you. There were a complete Derby family and so kind.
"Darren was a Derby County fan, it was his life. He went to every game he could with his friends and he loved watching the darts."
She also issued a warning to those she thinks aren't taking the pandemic seriously.
She added: "We are just all shocked and devastated.
"Please, you really need to take this seriously. Darren's mum and dad shielded for nearly a year and thought they were safe and well.
"It shows it can happen to anybody in the blink of an eye."
