Tributes have been paid to a ‘popular’ 46-year-old woman with a rare lung condition who died after falling ill with coronavirus after a family trip to Blackpool.
Nicola Smith, from Langley in Middleton, passed away last Thursday just six days after she was admitted to North Manchester General Hospital with the virus.
Miss Smith was in a high-risk category as she suffered from the rare lung disease tracheobronchomalacia, which causes airways to become narrow and weak.
Her condition – which she developed at the age of 42 – meant she often became breathless, suffered from persistent coughing and would use a wheelchair when she left the house.
Nicola Smith, from Langley in Middleton, passed away last Thursday just six days after she was admitted to North Manchester General Hospital with coronavirus (Pictured: Miss Smith with her mother Jennifer)
But when she returned from a family trip to Blackpool last month, her mother noticed her condition was much worse than usual and that she was struggling to breathe.
She took Miss Smith to the North Manchester General Hospital where she tested positive for COVID-19.
Miss Smith was treated with antibiotics on an isolation unit as medics battled to keep her alive, but the 42-year-old sadly died on March 26.
Her mother Jennifer Smith, 73, said the whole family have been left ‘devastated’ following her death.
Miss Smith was in a high-risk category as she suffered from the rare lung disease tracheobronchomalacia, which causes airways to become narrow and weak (Pictured: Miss Smith at her graduation ceremony with her grandmother)
When she returned from a family trip to Blackpool last month, her mother noticed her condition was much worse than usual and that she was struggling to breathe
‘We were together 24/7 really’, she said. ‘She had a lot of friends and was really popular. Even the bus drivers knew her.
‘She loved crafting, music and travelling.’
Miss Smith lived with her mother and aunt in Langley and had close ties to the local community.
Before developing a lung disease at the age of 42, she worked at The Burnside Community Centre, helping people with their reading and writing.
‘She loved helping people’, her mother said. ‘She went to university and got a degree, then she did a Masters degree in Dyslexia and Literacy.
‘She did quite well for herself but when she developed the condition, she couldn’t work because people would panic when she had an attack.’
Mrs Smith took her daughter to the North Manchester General Hospital (pictured) where she tested positive for COVID-19
Miss Smith’s condition meant she suffered with breathlessness and needed a wheelchair outside of the house.
But her mother said she managed the condition well and could ‘live with it’.
she added: ‘We did not expect her to pass away so young.
‘The council had just done a lot of adaptations to the house for her and we’d just got her a new wheelchair.’
In the days before her hospital admission, Miss Smith began struggling to breathe and was ‘up and down for a week’.
Her mother, who worked as a nurse for 50 years, took her to hospital as she ‘knew something was not right’.
Within six days of being admitted, Miss Smith passed away in the isolation unit.
‘Things had improved before this, and she had got better before this thing hit her and then it was all over within a week’, her mother added. ‘She was in there for six days.
The UK recorded another 563 deaths due to coronavirus today, making it the worst day so far in the devastating COVID-19 crisis (Pictured: Miss Smith with her cousins as children)
‘Staff said she could not go on a ventilator because of her condition so she was treated with antibiotics.
‘She could not breathe. She gradually went downhill and could just not fight it.’
Her mother said a ‘lot of people are upset’ that they won’t be able to attend her funeral due to the current government restrictions.
She also urged people in Greater Manchester to take COVID-19 seriously.
People do really need to be careful and take the precautions,’ Ms Smith said.
The UK recorded another 563 deaths due to coronavirus today, making it the worst day so far in the devastating COVID-19 crisis.
The increase takes the country’s death toll to 2,352 – today’s surge is 48 per cent larger than yesterday’s increase of 381 fatalities and pushes the total up by 31 per cent in a day.
Some 29,474 people have now tested positive for COVID-19, making the UK the fifth hardest-hit nation in Europe and eighth in the world.