A mother and daughter died just days apart in a Northern Ireland hospital after both women who were not vaccinated against the Covid -19 contracted the virus.
Sammie-Jo Forde, who was 32, died in the Ulster Hospital on the outskirts of east Belfast on Saturday.
She had been treated in the same ward, two beds apart, from her mother Heather Maddern, who died on 31 August.
Ms Forde’s father said neither of the pair had been vaccinated, adding he was “devastated” by their deaths.
“This has just shattered my world,” Kevin McAllister told the BBC’s Nolan Show.
“I’ve lost my daughter, my best friend.”
Ms Forde, who lived in Groomsport, was a married mother of four children, the eldest of whom is 13 years old.
Mr McAllister said both his daughter and his ex-partner Ms Maddern were domiciliary care workers, who looked after elderly people in their own homes.
“They were very, very close,” he said. “They worked together, they lived together and they died together.”
Ms Maddern’s funeral took place on Monday 13 September and her daughter’s funeral is due to take place in Holywood, County Down, on Monday 20 September.
“I never, never thought in my life I would bury my daughter,” Mr McAllister said.
Ms Forde had been texting her father from the hospital and she had informed him of her mother’s death.
“They were only two beds apart.”
Mr McAllister said he believed his daughter had no underlying health conditions.
“She’s a 32-year-old healthy girl and she took heart failure at the end because she just couldn’t cope,” he said.
Mr McAllister said he did not understand why his daughter and ex-partner did not take up the offer of a vaccine to protect themselves against Covid-19.
“They helped other people and they couldn’t even help themselves,” he said.
“These people who are not taking the Covid-19 injection – they’re not thinking of the other people that they leave behind.”
Mr McAllister said the rest of his family had been left to “pick up the pieces” and he urged the public to “listen to the experts” and get vaccinated.
BBC