At the height of the initial Covid outbreak in March last year, Leilani Medel, a 41-year-old mum, posted a picture of herself and her 13-year-old daughter Carmina on her Facebook page with the caption: ‘Don’t ask me to stay home, I’m a nurse! We fight when others can’t any more.’
Leilani, who lived in Bridgend, South Wales, was born in the Philippines and had worked in NHS hospitals and care homes for the past ten years.
She was described by colleagues as ‘the kindest of souls’ — a ‘passionate’ nurse who would do anything for her patients.
Three weeks after that Facebook post, the fit and active young mother was dead.