Covid-19: Widow of victim urges people to 'follow rules'

Thirty-eight-year-old Jamie Bellamy died from Covid-19 in April last year

A woman whose 38-year-old husband died with coronavirus has warned people to "follow the rules" to avoid more deaths.

Jamie Bellamy died at Kettering Hospital in April 2020 after being on a ventilator for a week.

His wife Emma was speaking in the week the UK death toll reached 100,000 people.

She said: "We need to all follow the rules. To hear the number of deaths had got to 100,000 was a very sad day."

Mr Bellamy died on Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020 - four days before his wife's 38th birthday.

He had been rushed from their home in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, to hospital a week earlier and put on a ventilator.

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Mrs Bellamy, who had recovered from coronavirus herself, was on her way to see him in intensive care when he died.

Emma Bellamy kept a feather that fell to her at the time her husband died

"I had this weird sense of calmness and I just thought, 'he's gone'," Mrs Bellamy said.

"I've always had a really strong belief you choose who you're with at the end. I believe he didn't want me to see him go.

"As I was running towards the hospital, this white feather landed in front of me.

"I looked up at the sky and said, 'you're gone, you're gone'."

Jamie Bellamy worked as a chef and was a massive fan of Liverpool Football Club

When Mrs Bellamy got to the hospital, a nurse confirmed her husband had died.

"Her face was red raw from where she had been wearing her mask," she said.

"They took me in to see him. I said 'I will love you forever'.

"I said 'thank you for giving me the honour of being your wife'."

Mrs Bellamy, who described her husband as "wonderful" and "funny, so quick-witted", said since his death she had been trying to live "for the both of us".

Jamie Bellamy was rushed to intensive care at Kettering Hospital, but died after being on a ventilator for a week

She said things were not easy: "I'd never lived on my own before.

"When you close the door at night you are really on your own and that's when I miss him a lot.

"I've lost my future and everything about my life has changed."

But she added: "We have to keep going. We can't let this virus beat us."

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