two small kids, one 8-year-old girl and another 3-year-old little boy talking to dad not realising he won’t respond ever again,

a vibrant young care team leader coming back from night shift finding her husband lying still and kids saying mummy, daddy is not moving” …

This was the scene that Tintu walked into after a 12-hour shift on Sunday morning.

I just can’t imagine anyone to be in that situation let alone those two little kids and the young mom. This has touched me personally and the small Malayali community in Chesterfield of all who are mostly NHS and other nursing care staff living in and around Chesterfield.

I arranged everything in advance to ensure I was completely free on Sunday to watch the last day of premier league football. My friend Arun came rushing to inform Soni died overnight while his wife who was working on a night shift supporting patients with covid19 and their two kids trying to awake their dad. Soni was on the floor with his children next to him when Tintu his wife returned from her overnight shift.

Emergency services were informed, and formalities were completed as required. We already knew the family were struggling financially with only Tintu currently working and was already struggling to keep up with the bills. Close friends are working between us to meet the immediate expenses like the funeral cost and upcoming monthly direct debits.

We went to meet the family yesterday and spoke to the kids. The poor girl was asking if she could kiss her dad one more time and she had even drawn a picture of a family of four and wrote ‘I love you’ on it. I cannot write anymore…….

It is a tragic incident which has made a major impact on the 33-year-old mother and the small kids. This has put further pressure on her current job as she won't be able to get back to work anytime soon as she will now struggle to find child care for her young children.

We, the Chesterfield Malayalee community which is a small group are helping, but I don’t think that it will be enough for this family, and I am requesting the wider population to generously help and support them. Any amount will help to alleviate their immediate financial pressure whilst they recover from this tragedy.

No amount is too small and every support you provide will be highly appreciated by Tintu and the kids.

Thank you

On behalf of Chesterfield Malayalee Community,

Sreekanth