Milton Keynes woman sets up support group for families mourning loved ones lost to coronavirus

Deborah Lewis said her family was just left to deal with their bereavement and nobody offered support of even advice on how to organise a funeral during lockdown.

She has now set up a special group for families to support and comfort each other and share their grief.

The group is called Covid19 Families UK and can be reached here.

Deborah's father was 74 years old and fit and healthy before he caught coronavirus.

She said: "Dad spent 13 days in intensive care in an induced coma and passed away on April 5.

I appreciate the world is fighting to stay alive but I equally feel that the grieving families are being forgotten. From personal experience, no-one told us what to do, how to deal with organising a funeral under lockdown or even offered emotional support...we were basically just left to deal with it.

"Ordinarily, there would be a host of charities would be able to help but with so many offices and call centres closed to Covid, there's very very little support for the grieving families of victims."

Deborah said she set up the Facebook support group as a way for other families to connect and share in their grief and ask for support and advice.

Her own grief has been compounded by the fact that she lost our mum five months ago months to cancer.

"In the space of five months, both my parents passed away to devastating illnesses," she said.

Deborah added: "the Facebook group is to allow family and friends of Covid-19 victims and others who have lost someone during lockdown to talk, ask advice and comfort one another.

As the world struggles to regain normality, our normality changed forever the day we were told a loved one would not survive."