The parents of one of Covid's first victims have told of their heartbreak and anger at people who refuse to be vaccinated.
Susan Sullivan was among the first people in the UK to die from the virus.
Her parents John and Ida have been suffering the pain of that loss for nearly two years.
A tearful father John told Sky News : "She was just lovely. She was our life… end of, do you know what I mean?"
READ MORE:
"I know how these other people feel. The thing is, until it happens to you, you don't know. You think you know, but you don't know."
Susan became ill in March 2020 and her illness was up and down for around 10 days just before the first lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson.
But her stomach pains became so bad John and Ida called an ambulance but the emergency services were inundated and eight hours later paramedics finally arrived.
Susan who had Downs Syndrome, was admitted to hospital with the only contact allowed by phone.
"As soon as she heard my voice she said 'Mummy, Mummy I don't like it', and that was it," Ida told Sky News.
Their daughter was so upset she couldn't speak.
"I never saw her again," said her father. "I never spoke to her either because when they gave me the phone she was just crying."
Susan, from north London, kept trying to remove her oxygen mask and didn't understand why it was so important.
And Ida said if she had been allowed into the ward she would have held it on
Doctors decided Susan's brother could visit, but 20 minutes after he arrived, she died in his arms.
The family were initially delighted when she was put into a ward rather than an intensive care unit, but when they read her medical notes it said that 'intensive care, ITU' had been denied because of 'Down Syndrome and cardiac co-morbidities'.
The couple don't blame the medical staff, who they know have to make unbearable decisions, instead accusing the Tory government of creating the shortage of beds.
And their anger is also reserved for those who chose not to have a vaccine as hospital beds become filled up with the unvaccinated.
John remarked how his Susan "didn't have that choice."
A memorial is planned when Susan's other brother flies over from Australia.
The wave of despair caused by the virus has now claimed more than 150,000 lives.
But the horrific reality is many more families who have been unaffected by the virus will face their own losses.
