NHS workers and doctors all over the country are revealing how they have been forced to say goodbye to their families for months as they battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
With many of the medics working long, hard hours caring for the sick and the elderly, they have decided to isolate themselves from loved ones to protect them from the killer virus.
Taking to social media, they have shared their plight to try and appeal to Brits to stay home and stop the spread of the illness.
In a video shared online, tearful Chanice Cushion, who works at Southend Hospital in Essex, urged Brits to do all they can to minimise the spread of the virus as she shared her heartbreak at having to move away from her daughter, two.
She posted the clip on Facebook yesterday and said that she had made the decision with her partner to protect their daughter and her vulnerable mother-in-law, who has chronic asthma.
Describing how her daughter was ‘going about her day as normal’ as she packed to leave, Chanice welled up and explained how she told her ‘mummy’s going away for a little while’.
She said: ‘She’s a two-year-old, she doesn’t understand. I left home earlier, and I said ”mummy’s going away for a little while. Mummy’s got work.”
And she said, ”Mummy, I come”. I said ”no baby, you can’t. I said I’m going to Nanny’s house and Nanny’s going to stay here with you.”
‘So today’s my first day of 12 weeks away from my kid, and it’s very hard. So I said my goodbyes to her and, as a normal parent would do, started to cry.
‘She just looked at me and went ”Mummy, why are you sad”. I didn’t know how to answer it, so I just replied with ”Mummy is sad”.
‘She grabbed her sleeve and she was wiping my tears away with her sleeve and said ”don’t cry Mummy”.’
The video has been shared more than 80,000 times online, and she has received thousands of comments of support.
Breaking down into tears, Chanice added: ‘I’ve had to leave my daughter for three months because I don’t want to put her in that vulnerable situation.
‘She has no idea what’s going on. No idea at all.’
And Chanice says she is petrified of going in to work.