Family of Gosport mother-of-three and care worker who died after getting coronavirus urge people to wear masks and stay safe

Three months ago Emma Dickinson from Gosport, who had kidney failure, spent three weeks on a ventilator after contracting Covid-19. The 35-year-old died on Easter Sunday.

Today her husband Aaron, mum Sue Foulsham and three children, Jack,14, Kathleen,11, and Jamie, 9, have paid tribute to her as they plead with people wear masks and keep to social distancing measures to protect family, friends and strangers.

Sue said: ‘It is so important that people wear their masks and social distance so that families don’t have to go through what we have been through.’

Husband Aaron described her as ‘loving’ and ‘a great mum’.

Emma, who was previously a care worker Langdale Nursing Home in Gosport, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2015 and had been having dialysis treatment ever since.

The former Baycroft School student went along to a session at the dialysis unit in Havant just before Mother’s Day in March.

Sue said: ‘I had been looking after the kids while she was at her dialysis and she called me after to say she wasn’t feeling well and I went back over to see her as we live very close. She had been in hospital a lot before so the kids weren’t worried at the time but I knew deep down that she had got Covid.

‘It was confirmed by doctors a couple of days after she went into Queen Alexandra Hospital and then she went downhill. It was really hard not being able to see her and just being kept updated by phone.’

The family were told the Covid-19 and her kidney diagnosis had worn her body down and that a stress ulcer had been found in her stomach during a CT scan that was causing bleeding.

Sue, 57, said: ‘We got a phone call to say it wasn’t looking brilliant and she died on Easter Sunday.

‘It has been really hard for our family especially not being able to see her for the last few weeks. She was a beautiful person who would do anything for anyone.

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‘We had so many people message us after I announced what had happened on Facebook and that was comforting. She was well known in the community because she used to do a lot of babysitting and they helped us fundraise £2,000 for her funeral.’

The family had booked a trip away to Weymouth before Emma, who had three brothers, became ill and Aaron has decided that the family will still go away in her memory.

The 34-year-old, who had been married to Emma since 2013, added: ‘She was so loving and a great mum. She was never sad and she was always happy.

‘Emma and I had booked it [the trip] already and I think that it will be good for our family to go and enjoy a little holiday in her memory.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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