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Much-loved district nurse dies after contracting COVID-19

‘Wonderful mentor and teacher’ Linda Obiageli Udeagbala worked for Sutton Health and Care

‘Wonderful mentor and teacher’ Linda Obiageli Udeagbala worked for Sutton Health and Care’s community nursing team

District nurse Linda Obiageli Udeagbala, who died on 3 February, worked for Sutton Health and Care’s community nursing team
District nurse Linda Obiageli Udeagbala, who died on 3 February, worked for Sutton Health and Care’s community nursing team. Picture: GoFundMe

Colleagues say they are heartbroken by the loss of a much-loved district nurse who died after contracting coronavirus.

Linda Obiageli Udeagbala, who worked for Sutton Health and Care’s community nursing team, died on 3 February after what her family descibed as a ‘short and courageous battle with COVID-19’.

Described as a ‘wonderful teacher and mentor to student nurses and her colleagues’, Ms Udeagbala joined Sutton Health and Care in 2005, initially working in the intermediate care team.

Positivity and spirit lifted community nursing team in times of challenge

She moved to the community nursing team in 2008, initially working in the Wallington area before joining the Carshalton team in 2014.

Sutton Health and Care director of nursing and quality Simon Littlefield said Ms Udeagbala had ‘touched many lives’ and her ‘positivity and spirit lifted the team in times of challenge and difficulty’.

‘Her passion for nursing has inspired a generation of students to take up community nursing as a career,’ he added.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust chief nurse Arlene Wellman – one of the partners in Sutton Health and Care – described Ms Udeagbala as a ‘skilled, compassionate and caring nurse who always put her patients first’.

Carshalton Primary Care Network clinical operational manager Patricia Thompson, said she was ‘full of warmth’ and had ‘an infectious laugh’.

‘All of the patients loved her. Her untimely death has left a massive hole in her team – we are all completely heartbroken,’ she added.

Inspired family to work for the NHS

Ms Udeagbala’s son Colin said: ‘My family is full of NHS workers and it all started from my mum,’ he said. ‘She instilled in us to care for others and that it’s not just a job.’

Ms Udeagbala is survived by her husband of 40 years Francis, who is a psychiatric nurse, and her five adult children – midwife Cheyrinne, paediatric nurse Angelica, mental health nurses Gerard and Colin, and Marvin, who is self-employed.

Ms Udeagbala’s family has set up a fundraising page, and friends and colleagues have so far donated more than £6,700.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that more than 250 nurses and healthcare assistants have died of COVID-19 in England and Wales since the start of the pandemic.

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