A "dedicated and loving" nurse with no underlying health conditions has died after conracting coronavirus - five weeks after she was placed on a ventilator.
The devastated niece of Onyenachi Obasi said she was heartbroken by the death of the health visitor and nurse who she said "gave her life doing what she loved".
The 51-year-old, who had been living in Barking and Dagenham, had no underlying health conditions and told her family that she felt she had a duty to work, and help, during the pandemic.
Ijeoma Uzoukwu, told the PA news agency: "We are just heartbroken. She was really loving, really sweet and a really cute person.
"She was a good example of unconditional love and just loved everyone. She was so giving and always had an ear - she took people as they were.
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"She loved her job, but that is what caused her to fall ill in the first place."
"She told me she had to do it," Ms Uzoukwu said.
However, a few days after caring for a Covid-positive patient Ms Obasi fell ill before eventually being admitted to hospital.
Her niece said: "Any normal situation I would go and see her, and be by her side. But because of the lockdown, we weren't able to do that, and that was really hard for our family."
Ms Obasi was placed on a ventilator for five weeks and was slowly recovering before she caught an infection. She died in the early hours of May 6 at Queen's Hospital in Romford.
Ms Uzoukwu is organising a fundraiser to help pay for her aunt's funeral and to also help provide for her 19-year-old son, who is vulnerable and was dependant on her.
She said: "It was just the two of them, and he relied on her for so much.
"We want to make sure he is taken care of for the foreseeable future and get him the help that he needs.
"He is a really sweet boy, and he has taken after his mum. He is such a nice boy and he is finding it really hard without her."
Donations can be made via a GoFundMe page set up in her memory.
Also today tributes have been paid to a learning disabilities nurse who died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Augustine Agyei-Mensah, known to his colleagues as Gus, was a highly regarded team member at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT).
The father-of-four had worked as a learning disabilities nurse at the trust since 2014, having qualified the year before.
Before training as a healthcare worker, he was employed by South West Trains for four years.
He worked closely with the team's speech and language therapist and his psychology colleagues to support people with complex cognitive and sensory needs.
Paying tribute to him, the NHFT said: "Augustine always recognised that as a clinician he had an opportunity to support service users in making positive changes."
Originally from Ghana, he was proud of his heritage and "dedicated" to his young family.
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