The family of a Dagenham woman who died after contracting coronavirus have said they are “devastated”.

Rosemary Owusu died at Queen’s Hospital, on Tuesday, March 17, days after suffering a stroke. She had tested positive for Covid-19 whilst at the Romford hospital but it was not responsible for her death.

The mum-of-one - described as “bubbly” by her sister Theresa - had initially been admitted to the hospital in February.

Rosemary’s son Glen Brown explained: “We as a family had to make the difficult decision of when to turn off the ventilator.

“She then kept fighting, breathing by herself for a few days. Due to the coronavirus, our visiting times with her were severely limited towards the end due to certain patients with the virus being dealt with not far from where my vulnerable mother lay fighting.”

He added: “We were then informed she had contracted the virus. We were obviously encouraged to instead receive updates via phone. After almost five days of breathing by herself she passed away in the early hours of March 17.”

Theresa explained that none of the family members who had visited Rosemary in hospital were showing signs of Covid-19.

“We stopped going to her for a while,” she added. “The coronavirus, that wasn’t what killed her, but we haven’t been out for a while.

“The whole family is devastated.”

Travel restrictions, as well as those on mass gatherings, has meant that the 54-year-old’s family can only organise a small funeral for her with a limited number of family members - with Theresa saying that some relatives, who live in America, are unable to attend. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help them meet the funeral costs.

“As you can imagine, having Covid-19 on her death certificate, despite it not being the thing that killed her, has made funeral proceedings extremely tricky,” Glen said. “We are now being forced to have a graveside burial with a limited number of family members.”

To donate towards the cost of Rosemary’s funeral, visit gofundme.com/f/rosemary2020