From Claire Apsey, Sandown:

On behalf of my son, Simon, and myself, I am writing to say thank you for the support and kind words that has been given to us after the tragic deaths due to Covid-19 of my dad — Raymond Scovell on 19th January 19, and my mum, Rosemary Scovell, on February 3.

We cannot express the heartbreak that we are dealing with.

They went into hospital with non-related conditions, but on admission it was discovered that they both had Covid.

The fear and anxiety we have had to deal with once we were told this, was only helped by the knowledge that they were being cared for by some amazing people.

We want to thank both the paramedic teams who came and supported my parents on their journey to hospital, the teams in A&E, the staff of Isolation One, Critical Care Unit, Intensive Care Unit, for the care, compassion, support, and kindness you gave to both to my parents and to us helped us in the most awful of times.

To the staff, especially Shane, Trisha, and Mandy on Wellow Ward, thank you for preparing and supporting me so I could be with dad for his final peaceful moments.

Unfortunately, I could not be with mum as she died suddenly in intensive care, but it means so much to know she was not alone, thank you to the doctor and nurses who were with her at the end.

To all the staff who came into contact with my parents, you truly are special people.

To William Hall, thank you for caring for them when they came to you.

To our closest friends thank you for being here and for listening, we would also like to thank Nicola Canning, from Isle of Wight Athletic Club, where dad was known as Mr. Athletics, for the wonderful tribute at the athletics track on the day of his funeral, thank you for the lovely tributes tied to balloons around the whole track and inside the hammer cage.

The restrictions due to Covid made the funeral and the grieving so much harder.

I know under normal circumstances the church would have been filled with people wanting to say goodbye to dad.

In a couple of weeks, we will say our final goodbye to mum, and then we hope at a later time in the year we will have a remembrance service for them both.

We would like to thank the County Press and IW Radio for the truly lovely articles you did on both of them.

To everyone who has sent cards, flowers, cooked food, sent messages or added comments to social media, we are overwhelmed that the most important people in our lives, were so well respected and loved.

We are still going through all the lovely comments, as you can guess it is exceedingly difficult and emotional for us to read them all.

My parents were community people and did so much for others, they never stopped encouraging others, so to this end we have set up just giving pages for both of them.

Dad's will support local organisations for children and mum's children’s and mental health charities.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rosemaryscovell

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rayscovell