84-year-old healthcare worker dies from coronavirus 10 days after her last shift

'She took huge pride in her work but was so humble. She embodied the nursing spirit,' says grandson

Family handout photo of Margaret Tapley, 84, a healthcare assistant who died at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in the early hours of Sunday after contracting coronavirus (PA)

A “dedicated” 84-year-old healthcare assistant has died after testing positive for coronavirus and has been hailed as a “legend” for her determination to keep working despite the risk of contracting the disease.

Margaret Tapley had a long career as a healthcare worker with the NHS and last worked in Linfoot Ward at Witney Community Hospital in Oxfordshire. Her last shift there was on 10 April.

She died 10 days later at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, said the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. In a statement, the trust announced the loss of Mrs Tapley with “tremendous sadness” and said her family and colleagues were “devastated at her passing”.

Chief Executive Stuart Bell said in tribute to Mrs Tapley: “She was a legend on the ward, and more widely throughout the whole hospital. She had worked there for many years and was remarkable in that she stayed with her team well beyond the point when many others would have retired – she was 84.

“She was also remarkable in the way she provided calm reassurance, support and encouragement to her colleagues, and compassion and care to her patients.”

Mrs Tapley knew she was putting herself at risk of contracting coronavirus and “would have been perfectly justified in self-isolating”, said Mr Bell, but she wanted to keep “doing the job she loved”.

“She embodied all that is best in those who work for the NHS,” he added. “She was such a central figure in the life of the ward that she will be greatly missed by all those who work there and by those who knew her across the Trust.”

Tom Wood, Mrs Tapley’s grandson, said his grandmother inspired him to become a nurse. He is a senior charge nurse in an accident and emergency department.

He wrote: “She was a huge reason as to why I am a nurse today. She took huge pride in her work but was so humble. She embodied the nursing spirit.

“For anyone who worked with her or knew her, that spirit that we all saw and felt lives on in us.”

Another grandson, Ben Wood, told BBC Radio 5 Live his grandmother “gave her life and dedicated it towards the NHS”.

He said she had been working for over 40 years for the NHS and there was “no talking her out of it”.

According to her family, Mrs Tapley experienced symptoms of Covid-19 before she was admitted to hospital on 16 April and died three days later.

Ben added: “We always said she would outlive all of us with the energy she had and it is tragic her life has been cut short. She still had an awful lot to give.”

At least 65 NHS workers have now died while fighting on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the PA news agency.

The Department of Health has identified 43 NHS workers in England who have died after contracting the virus, but PA reports it has verified 65 deaths since 25 March.