The children of a woman who died from coronavirus are raising money for the hospital she was treated at.

Melanie Hacker, from Milton, near Sittingbourne, lost her fight at Medway Maritime Hospital on Monday, February 8 after testing positive for Covid-19.

The 45-year-old’s condition had deteriorated and she was taken to hospital nine days after her daughter Chloe’s 18th birthday on January 13.

She spent two weeks in its high dependency and intensive care units but, due to restrictions, no family visits were allowed.

Chloe said: “We weren’t able to go and see mum so the nurses said they’d set up Skype video calls for us to do every day.

“They put their tablet next to mum so we could talk to her and she could hear us. It kept us close to her and it was the way we said goodbye to her.”

Chloe and her brother Owen, 15, have now decided to raise money to buy the hospital more technology to help other families stay connected with their loved ones.

She said: “My mum was my rock. To be able to speak to her really helped and we want to be able to give other families the opportunity to keep in touch with each other.

“That’s the way mum brought us up; to put other people before yourself - and that’s exactly what she did.

“She was the type of person that people would go to with any issue. She’d do whatever she could to help others.”

Chloe added: “Because we still live at home, me and Owen were with mum every single day and to not see her would have been hard for us.

“Mum absolutely loved the snow, it was her most favourite thing, and when it was snowing we were able to tell her all about it and that we’d been out on our sledges. It kept us connected to her.”

The siblings initially set out to raise £700 to buy two new tablets for Medway’s intensive care unit (ICU) – but they smashed that amount in about 20 minutes.

They then raised the target to £3,000 and their fundraising page now stands at more than £8,100.

Chloe said: “The money was to buy tablets for ICU, but now we’re hoping to buy them for other units as well.

“Me and Owen were also given bereavement books and the hospital said their funding was very slim, that’s why the books are aimed at younger children. So we’re thinking of putting some money towards that as well so they’ve got more of a selection.”

She added: “If mum was here, she would’ve chosen to do something like this in a heartbeat - that’s why we wanted to do it in her memory. It would be amazing to raise £10,000.” To donate, click here.

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