Downing Street gathering photos bring back agony of dad's Covid death for Sunderland woman

Susie Flinham, 44, from Sunderland, said since seeing the photographs of the Prime Minister and his staff in Downing Street’s garden, she has suffered nightmares and flashbacks of visiting her father in hospital for the last time.

Howard Crozier lost his life to Covid-19 in March 2020, and a funeral was held for him on April 15 and was attended by just Mrs Flinham and her husband.

She said she had not seen her father for a number of days due to restrictions on hospital visiting when she was called and told he would be given end of life care.

Mrs Flinham said: “I had to go to the hospital. I saw him in 10-minute intervals and was in full PPE. He had Alzheimer’s and I don’t know if he recognised me. He was lucid and I don’t know if he knew my voice.

“Because of his condition, he was really struggling to breathe. I can imagine all of his energy was going on trying to breathe.

“A funeral is an acknowledgment of life and we couldn’t have that. Grief is isolating anyway, and we were already in an isolation.”

Mrs Flinham spoke about last Christmas, the first without her father, and said recent reports of alleged parties held at Downing Street had “brought it all back” and she has been suffering from nightmares.

She said: “I had a nightmare last night and dreamt I was on dad’s hospital ward, it was really visceral. I’m sure there’s other people having flashbacks too. When I first heard about this party that took place the month after the funeral I broke down.

“This feels so personal and has brought it all back. The day the picture was taken people were denied seeing their dying loved ones and fewer people were allowed to funerals than in that garden.

“They are talking about bringing in strict mitigations but there are so many incidents where it is so obvious Number 10 and the Government don’t believe they apply to them. My first reaction was anger. How disrespectful to people who have lost loved ones and couldn’t say goodbye properly? I’ve been in tears ever since and don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it. How do you process that?

“I can’t believe we’ve got people saying it’s clearly a meeting because they’re all in suits – that adds insult to injury. There’s no pens, no work material. I taught in schools for 15 years and have been in meetings and I know what a meeting looks like, and that does not look like a meeting.

“The Prime Minister had been in intensive care with coronavirus – I don’t understand how someone who had been so very ill would think it was perfectly acceptable to break the rules. You would think there would be empathy there but all the way through this there has been no empathy.”

Mrs Flinham has been getting support from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice since May 2020. The group is campaigning for an inquiry into allegations of parties at Downing Street when restrictions were in place.