“For my staff, this is not a war – wars end. Whenever this Coronavirus outbreak abates, whether through a vaccine or the success of social distancing, NHS staff will get up the following morning and go straight back to work. Back to dealing with whatever health emergency comes next. Because that is what they do: day in, day out. They set aside risks to their personal health so that they can help treat others. And they don’t give it a second thought. That selflessness is what makes my colleagues and the NHS so special.”

These words, spoken by a senior hospital consultant who asked to remain anonymous, were perhaps the most sobering that Byline Times has heard during its reporting of a global Coronavirus outbreak which has killed at least 130,000 people, including more than 11,000 in the UK alone.

Of course, the consultant’s sentiment applies not just to the extraordinary doctors, nurses, managers and staff inside the UK’s hospitals – but also to carers, mental health staff, district midwives, porters, healthcare-related drivers, paramedics, pharmacists and every other individual who risks their life by continuing to work across the health and care-related sectors during this unprecedented emergency.

Some of those still tackling the virus continue to warn of shortages of personal protective equipment and vital machines such as ventilators. But, despite issuing these warnings, staff simply knuckle down and continue with their vital work.

Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a locum urologist at Homerton Hospital in east London, died shortly after issuing a plea for more PPE for frontline staff. Paying tribute to his father, Intisar Chowdhury, said: “My father would not be afraid to point out what was wrong. He cared about people. He cared about his co-workers, his colleagues, his family. He cared about people he had never even met. He cared about everyone and that love and passion he had for everyone extended to every aspect of his life.”

As of 13 April 2020, 44 health and care-related workers in the UK have died from the Coronavirus.

While older people are naturally more vulnerable, COVID-19, the disease associated with the virus, does not respect age. It has killed nurses as young as 23 years old, as well as doctors in their late 70s who came out of retirement to treat patients.

It does not respect ethnicity, although a disproportionate number of patients and staff who have died hail from Britain’s diverse BME communities. And the virus does not respect borders – many frontline health and care workers who have died in the UK are immigrants or the children of immigrants.

Regardless of their age, ethnicity and background, each frontline worker who has fallen victim to the virus is the very definition of a modern-day British hero. Byline Times pays tribute to those who have given their lives so selflessly in order to protect us all. They will never be forgotten.

Reporting by Mark Conrad