A MOTHER AND daughter in Northern Ireland have died in hospital with Covid-19 only two weeks apart from each other.

Heather Maddern and Sammie-Jo Forde, 32, passed away after being admitted to hospital with the virus, where they were two beds away from each other.

Neither of the women were vaccinated against Covid-19.

Kevin McAllister, Sammie-Jo’s father and Heather’s ex-partner, said their deaths have “shattered [his] world”.

Speaking on the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, McAllister said that his daughter suffered heart failure after contracting the virus and passed away on Saturday.

“My daughter was 32 with four kids,” McAllister said.

“People not taking the Covid-19 injections are not thinking about the people they’ll leave behind. I’ve lost my daughter, my best friend,” he said.

“I can’t give her a kiss cheerio.

“Next Monday, I have to bury my first born, my best friend, my daughter, and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

Heather and Sammie-Jo worked together providing home care to older people alongside a third team member.

“The third person had the two Covid injections and is living to this day and talking to me,” McAllister said.

“If she had taken it, she would have been alive today, her and her mummy.”

He urged people to take the vaccine to protect themselves against Covid-19.

His daughter was a healthy woman with no underlying conditions, he said.

“I never can get out of my mind why she didn’t take it. It will haunt me for the rest of my life,” he said.

“I wish people out there would listen to the experts.”

“My daughter sent me a text message that mummy’s passed away. They were only two beds apart. Then she was sending me texts, ‘I’m okay, Dad’, and I said to her, ‘when you come home, I’ll make you a fry and we’ll have a beer’.

“And then I sent her another text message saying ‘we’ll get a scooby snack’. Years ago, we used to have a wee scooby snack before you went to bed. I said ‘do you remember it’ and she said ‘oh yeah’.”

“But to get that phone call on Saturday. I’ll never forget. It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.

“I’d be tough, but this has just shattered my world.”

A fundraiser on Go Fund Me has raised £10,895 in three days to support Sammie-Jo’s husband and children. 

In total, 2,478 people have died in Northern Ireland with Covid-19.

Health Minister Robin Swann announced earlier this week that teenagers aged 12 to 15 would be offered the vaccine.

“This move will help protect young people from catching Covid-19 and is expected to prevent disruption in schools by reducing transmission,” Swann said.

Nearly 2.5 million vaccine doses against Covid-19 have been administered in Northern Ireland to date.