COVID-19: return-to-practice nurse lives in camper van to shield high-risk husband

Ros McManus spent six weeks living in the James Paget Hospital car park 

A retired nurse who returned to work on a COVID-19 ward has been living in a camper van to shield her high-risk husband.

Retired nurse dropped her travelling plans to return to practice during the pandemic

Ros McManus retired as a nurse on the stroke ward at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, in March and was planning to go travelling with her husband of 35 years.

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But when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Ms McManus made the decision to return to work as a bank nurse and moved out of her family home in Great Yarmouth to protect her husband, Joe McManus, who has had a transplant.

This has meant for the the past six weeks she has been living in the hospital car park in a camper van.

Time apart has made couple appreciate each other more

She told the Eastern Daily Press: ‘We bought the camper van for holidays and I thought I could easily live in it.

‘I miss my husband, but it doesn’t do you any harm to have a few weeks apart and we appreciate each other more now.’

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James Hodds, who works for Waveney Campers and Road Drifter Rentals, where Ms McManus bought the camper van, has been helping the nurse with her new home.

‘I took her a generator and, so she doesn’t have to move the van, I fill up petrol cans and take them when she runs out. For what she is doing, it’s the least we could do.’

Ms McManus will be isolating on her own at the company's campsite when she finishes her last shift this week before returning to live with her husband.

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