The son of a hospital campaigner who died after testing positive for coronavirus has paid tribute to his “loving and caring” mother.

Margaret Blee, 87, was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham last month after having a fall at her home in Scocles Road, Minster, Sheppey - where she had lived for 56 years.

Then, on December 5, her son Ian said he was told by doctors his mother had tested positive for Covid-19. Sadly, eight days later, she died.

Ian said: “After her fall at home, the ambulance crew took her in. She also had a mild chest infection but a short while later she was discharged.

“She went home for a week or so and she had another fall. The ambulance crew came back, they did some more tests and said she had pneumonia - but it was actually Covid.

“She had a positive result on the 5th when she was in hospital. She died on the 13th. She must have caught it the first time she went in.”

Mrs Blee together with her husband Alan, who passed away in 2003, had campaigned for more than 30 years for improved hospital services on Sheppey.

She had also been chairman of the Sheppey Hospital League of Friends for many years. Mrs Blee was born and raised in Streatham, London.

She came to Sheppey during the war when she was evacuated. She went on to work at the shirt factory in Hope Street, Sheerness, and then at The Co-op Shoe Shop in Sheerness Broadway.

In 1959, she and Alan married at Minster Abbey. The couple had known each other since the age of 10 when they both studied music and took piano examinations together.

The first two years of married life were spent in Bermuda - where Alan was born - but they returned to Sheppey in the sixties.

Their son Ian, 56, said: “Mum was a loving and caring person. She would always help people out if she could and she did so much charity work.

“As a kid, she would never work while I was home, she wanted to be home when I was there, and when I got in from school.

“She, and my dad, were always there should I need them, in my adult life too.”

Ian said he and his family were waiting for his mother’s death certificate.

“We can’t arrange mum’s funeral until then, so it will probably be in the new year.”

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