‘Inspirational’ teacher with no underlying health conditions sadly dies from coronavirus

A 42-year-old teacher with no underlying health conditions has sadly died from coronavirus.

Donna Coleman, described as an ‘inspirational’ teacher, returned to her role at Burnley College when schools reopened even though she told her family she was ‘scared’.

Mourners lined the streets this week to pay their respects to the much-loved teacher, with tributes pouring in. One emotional message simply read: “This lady changed my son’s life.”

Donna admitted to her family that she ‘didn’t feel safe’, but she wanted to go back to the job ‘she loved’.

JustGiving

Now her sister Vicki, 45, has called for teachers to be given vaccine priority to protect them, telling the Mirror that the government needs to do more to help keep them safe.

She said: “We need teachers to be vaccinated as soon as possible… Donna told me in September that she was scared.

“Don’t get me wrong, she wanted to go back – she loved her job – but she said staff members were terrified.”

After she began to suffer from breathing problems on December 29th, Donna was rushed into Blackburn Royal Hospital, where she messaged Vicki on New Year’s Day.

She promised to FaceTime her sister the next day, but didn’t manage the call, as by this point she was already on a ventilator despite having no underlying conditions.

Vicki added: “She had messaged friends asking them to look after her family, so she must have been scared.

“My dad and sister went to see her and came back home looking shocked, saying, ‘she’s not coming out of this.’

“I went the next day, I held her hand, I said goodbye. That wasn’t Donna, she wasn’t there, she’d gone.”

Sadly, Vicki says she doesn’t think ‘we’d be having this conversation’ if schools and colleges had closed earlier.

A JustGiving page has been created in Donna’s memory, and has already smashed its target of £1,000, having raised more than £10.5k at the time of writing – you can donate here.

Our thoughts are with Donna’s family at this difficult time