Family of Craig Ruston, 45, say he was a ‘wonderfully kind and caring’ person who was fighting to raise awareness of MND

The youngest victim of the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK so far has been named as Craig Ruston, a 45-year-old father of two who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

In a Facebook post, Ruston’s family said he died at 6.20am on Monday after testing positive for coronavirus. They said Ruston, from Kettering, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in June 2018, was “not ready to go”.

The post on his Me and My MND page on Tuesday, signed by his wife, Sally, and his “amazing girls”, said: “My amazing Craig passed away yesterday morning at 6.20am. We are truly heartbroken. His fight with MND was not ready to be over. At diagnosis in June 2018 he was given roughly two years to live. He was pushing that back. Craig was not ready to go.”

His family said Ruston was taken ill on Tuesday last week and spent six days in isolation. They added: “How dare that take Craig, who was already facing this, the most vile and evil of diseases. Craig’s wish upon death was to give his brain to the Oxford Brain Bank. It was to be used specifically for MND research and Craig was so keen to do this. He’d give anything in the name of research. Sadly this can no longer happen. How dare this virus take this from Craig.”

His family described Ruston as a “wonderfully kind and caring” person who welcomed everyone. They said he had been doing “everything in his power” to raise awareness and fight against MND.

They said: “To those of you that knew Craig before his MND diagnosis, after his diagnosis and to all that follow this his blog, I’m sure you knew or could tell what a wonderfully kind and caring person he was. He welcomed everyone. There were no airs and graces with Craig.

“He loved the world. He absorbed the world. He was one of the most intelligent people I know that would absorb information and could somehow explain just about anything.”