Yahoo News Coronavirus: Tearful NHS worker tells daughter, 2, she can’t see her for 12 weeks
An NHS worker broke down in tears during a video as she described leaving her two-year-old daughter for three months while she helps coronavirus patients.
Chanice Cushion, a medical emergency assistant at Southend Hospital, Essex, posted an emotional video on Facebook on Monday.
It was posted on the day prime minister Boris Johnson announced strict new measures and told Britons to stay at home.
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In the clip, which lasts more than six minutes, she talks about her decision to move out of the family home during the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Breaking down in tears as she described how she broke the news to her daughter, Cushion said she was “petrified” of going to work.
She has moved out of the home she shares with her partner to avoid risking the health of her daughter and her mother-in-law, who lives with them and has chronic asthma.
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She has swapped homes with her own mother, who will now stay with Cushion’s partner, daughter and mother-in-law.
In the video, Cushion described how she said goodbye to her daughter.
“So this morning, I get up and I pack my things, and my daughter is going about her day as normal. She's only two years old, she doesn't understand.
"I told her that I couldn't stay, and that Mummy had to go and work. And she said, 'Mummy, I come'.
"I said 'no baby, you can't. I said I'm going to Nanny's house and Nanny's going to stay here with you.'
"So today's my first day of 12 weeks away from my kid, and it's very hard.
"So I said my goodbyes to her and, as a normal parent would do, started to cry.
"She just looked at me and went 'Mummy, why are you sad'. I didn't know how to answer it, so I just replied with 'Mummy is sad'.
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"She grabbed her sleeve and she was wiping my tears away with her sleeve and said 'don't cry Mummy.'"
Cushion advised people to stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak.
She said: "I'm petrified of going to work - I'm petrified - but I have to go to work.
"You have to stay indoors. There is nothing so special out there for you to be going out.
"Yeah, the sun's shining - you might be dead in a few weeks because you wanted to go out and get some fresh air and mingle with people and not keep a 2m distance.
"You need to really get your priorities straight. Go home, stay home, protect your children, protect the vulnerable people that you could potentially be infecting.”
