THE western world was realising just how serious the threat from coronavirus really was. It was March 14 and across the UK some panic buying of household essentials had begun.

Connie McCready, 46, and her fiancé of four years Jim Russell, 51, had been due to fly to Spain the day before but the holiday was cancelled at the 11th hour when Spain went into Lockdown.

“I was already very scared of the virus – I was trying to work out how to buy food and essentials for the house and still avoid crowds. Jim was far more laid back about things,” Ms McCready said.

The couple from Parkhead in Glasgow had time off from work for their holiday so spent it shopping and planning a joint car valeting business venture. Mr Russell, a trucker, and Ms McCready, a Lanarkshire college student funding assistant, were saving for their wedding in June.

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One week later the nightmare that is Covid 19 had visited this couple landing Mr Russell critically ill in hospital and affecting both Ms McCready and her 16-year-old daughter Rhiannon with similar but milder symptoms of headaches, a cough, temperature and a change to the sense of smell and taste.

On May 4, 35 days later, Mr Russell died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary leaving Ms McCready devastated.

Today she is backing The Herald’s Garden of Remembrance campaign to create a memorial cairn for every Scot who has lost their life to the virus.

During that week of March 14 thousands of people across the UK became infected by the virus – many hundreds became so unwell they were admitted to hospitals and of those a great many died unable to breathe as their lungs and respiratory functions failed.

It’s understandable to be angry at a virus. Ms McCready has good reason to hate coronavirus. But she is desperately seeking answers to questions she fears she’ll never get answered and that she’ll never be able to grieve properly because of the questions and lack of answers that haunt her every moment of every day.

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Ms McCready said: “By March 21 Jim had a slight cough and wasn’t feeling right. He felt a bit hot and then cold and by March 27 and 28 his symptoms had worsened with achy joints and a more persistent cough – he was very tired and felt weak which just wasn’t Jim at all”.

She remembers at that time hearing Scotland’s Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch saying on the radio, “if you have flu like symptoms you might have caught the virus because the flu season is over.” She said: “I will never forget hearing him say that. That’s when I knew.”

Ms McCready said: “I did what I was advised and phoned 111 and was told to get Jim up to the Assessment Centre at Stobhill Hospital. He was only there for about five minutes when he was discharged with anti-biotics. They said his symptoms were consistent with coronavirus but it could still just be a chest infection. When they checked his temperature, it was normal and they told me they didn’t have the facilities to check his breathing and weren’t doing tests for the virus. To this day I cannot understand why all across the UK we were being told to get checked but people weren’t being tested.

“We weren’t warned properly and we weren’t tested … if we had been tested Jim’s treatment would have started sooner and he might be alive today”.

The couple went home and Mr Russell took his anti-biotics and paracetamol to control spikes in temperature.

“He was struggling to breathe – it was getting more serious and in the small hours of that Tuesday I called 111 and was advised to get him to A&E immediately,” added Ms McCready.

She has nothing but admiration for the doctors and nurses who did their best to save her fiance but when she did arrive at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the early morning of March 31 the receiving medics knew almost immediately that he had Covid 19 – he was admitted and between that moment and the day he died 35 days later in Aberdeen’s Royal Infirmary.

When Mr Russell was being admitted it became fairly evident that both Ms McCready and her daughter also had become infected as they had similar – although milder – symptoms as Mr Russell but again she is left bewildered by the UK policy decisions being made at that time … there was no test offered to them at the hospital.

“I have so many questions,” she said. “So many things that should have been different and so many things that would have meant so many more lives would have been saved. Just look at the statistics we now have in the UK with almost 40,000 people having died from this virus."

Ms McCready added: “They were also so reluctant to give out the symptoms to look out for – they weren’t helping us. As I said it was hearing Jason Leitch say that if you have flu like symptoms it might be the virus because the flu season is finished – that’s the only key phrase I heard that told me what I needed to know but by then it was already a bit late and the Assessment Centres weren’t even testing for the virus.”

Mr Russell was treated in Glasgow Royal Infirmary for eight days then transferred by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary which is the only hospital in Scotland able to deliver Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) to adult patients. The treatment restores oxygen levels to the blood but I wasn’t enough to save him. He also underwent a tracheotomy but despite all efforts the Intensive Care Unit team in Aberdeen were unable to save him.

The treatment couldn’t save him. He was in an induced coma for much of the time and was being kept alive by a ventilator machine. On May 4 Ms McCready got a phone call to ask her to come up and say goodbye to Mr Russell.

Ms McCready spoke out just days after The Herald launched a campaign to create a memorial cairn and garden.

And Ms McCready believes a special place for her and the many other relatives of Covid 19 victims is a wonderful thing to campaign for.

She added: “I believe a place of reflection will be a terrific asset for the people of Glasgow but it might also become a focus where there can be support for families and loved ones affected so badly by this terrible virus. That help might take the shape of legal advice or counselling or even to help set up local support groups where stories can be shared and memories treasured.”

Can you help our campaign? Email us at memorialgarden@theherald.co.uk

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