Sunderland community nurse who died after testing positive for Covid honoured on the first anniversary of her death

Fiona Anderson was a community nurse at Grindon Lane Primary Care Centre who sadly died on April 26 last year, aged 48, after testing positive for Covid-19.

Now, a year on from her death, her family and colleagues came together at Fiona’s place of work on Tuesday, April 27, where NHS bosses unveiled a memorial bench in her honour.

Fiona’s dad Dave Anderson, along with her sisters Julie Green, Angela Anderson and Sarah Anderson joined her colleagues where they were presented with memorial stones and a blue NHS bear which was specially made from Fiona’s uniform.

Ken Bremner, the chief executive of South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust also surprised the family by announcing that the Community Nurse of the Year award was to be renamed the Fiona Anderson Community Nurse of the Year award.

Her sister, Julie Green from Hylton Castle, told the Echo of her delight at the memorial bench and her surprise when it was announced that the award would be renamed after Fiona.

The 56-year-old hospitality worker said: “It’s [the bench] so nice, it’s somewhere for people to come and just think about her and about life in general.

“She had no idea of the respect that she was held in by everybody, she genuinely didn’t know, she just loved doing her job and she was good at it.

“We had literally no idea about the award, the fact that something is going to last for years and years in Fiona’s name, doing the job she loved and have her name carried on, it’s just unbelievable.”

Julie also revealed how difficult it was for the whole family at the time of Fiona’s death, with her dad also being rushed into hospital with the virus.

She added: “We got the phone call from our sister Angela to say that dad was ill, so Sarah and myself went to see my dad, called an ambulance and he was taken in with Covid.

“Literally an hour later, we got a phone call from Fiona, we went straight to her and phoned the ambulance to get her into hospital.

"My dad came out of hospital the day before Fiona died, unfortunately Covid took its toll on Fiona.”

Denise Slark, Matron of Sunderland Community Integrated Team, talked about how integral Fiona was to the community nursing team.

She commented: “Fiona was key part of the work family here at the community integrated team, she was reasonably new to the team had a massive impact.

"She was very committed to community nursing, she was very committed to her patients but she also impacted everyone with her great sense of humour, her ability to get people together.

"Coming here to remember Fiona is important for everyone, it has been a hard and difficult year and Fiona has never been far from our memories.

"It is really good for us to meet her family once again, in particular Fiona’s dad as goodness knows what he is going through as a man who has lost his child.”

Support your Echo and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to local news, the latest on SAFC and new puzzles every day.

With a digital subscription, you can see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Click here to subscribe.