A mum left behind her two teenage daughters after she died from an extremely rare infection in her spine and brain.
Judith Thorpe fell ill with Covid-19 on Saturday, August 6, and was rushed to hospital when she had a seizure. Doctors believe the 49-year-old had a rare form of the virus which entered the spinal cord before entering her brain which led to the NHS cleaner being admitted to intensive care and then diagnosed as brain dead. Fewer than 20 people across the world are affected the same way.
Her family took the decision to withdraw life support on Wednesday. The death means her daughters Hannah, 16, and Scarlett, 13, are now being looked after by their half-brother Lewis, 24, and his partner after their dad, John Lydon, died of cancer in 2015.
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Not only has the family been left to deal with the grief after their mum's death, but they have also been left without a penny as Judith took the difficult decision to cash in her NHS pension in order to pay a rocketing electricity bill and buy new school uniform for her children just two months before she died.
As well as the Newcastle cleaner cashing in her pension, the family will also miss out on a potential £30,000 of death in membership benefits due to her leaving the scheme. Lewis says he had no idea his mother had cancelled her pension in May to get just £210 paid back after fees from £362 contributions she had put in from her £10-an-hour £14,500/year salary since November, the Mirror reports.
Now grieving Lewis, a customer service adviser, has blasted the Government for failing to shield families like theirs from surging bills. It comes as half of the UK’s households are expected to be plunged into fuel poverty by the New Year - with the poorest three times worse hit.
And despite projected rises in the energy price cap to £5,000 a year in 2023, the Government is yet to step forward with meaningful help. Lewis said: “I’m disgusted at them. They let energy giants reap record-breaking profits while millions of families choose between heating or eating.
"Mam told me she was worried she wouldn’t be able to afford new school shoes and jumpers. Every spare penny was going towards her bills. She said 'I just can’t make it work. I can’t even afford to use the dryer’. She wouldn’t watch telly because of the electric. She’d read a book instead.”
Judith’s supplier was Eon which this week revealed a quarterly net profit of £1.2bn. A GoFundMe fundraising appeal to help support Judith’s surviving children has been launched contributed.
Yesterday Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary, said: “This tragedy is a real world consequence of Britain’s broken energy market. With energy prices about to explode further, this Conservative government needs to wake up to the mess that it’s created.” Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This is a heartbreaking tragedy for Judith’s family.
“It is even more distressing to know that her family has been left without the financial support they would have been entitled to had Judith not spent her final months struggling with the bills and cashing in her pension. Labour will scrap vat on energy bills to ease pressure on households.”
A DHSC spokesperson confirmed: “The death in service lump sum is calculated as twice pensionable pay. However, it is a benefit only available whilst the person is paying into the scheme.”
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