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The manager of an Aldi store has spoken out after a nurse was left in tears by customers moaning about her using her NHS card.

The children's nurse had just finished a 13 hour night shift when she stopped at Aldi in Fazakerley to do some shopping shortly before 8am on Monday morning.

Aldi is one of several major supermarket chains to give priority to NHS workers, including allowing them to avoid queues as stores limit the number of customers allowed in at a time as part of coronavirus social distancing measures.

But the nurse, who has worked at Alder Hey Children's Hospital for 30 years, was left in floods of tears after other customers waiting to get in objected to her showing a security guard her NHS card.

She told the ECHO she heard one customer sarcastically quip: "Oh we're all NHS here," while another said: "I know the NHS do a good job, but so what?"

Yesterday she told the ECHO: "I couldn't believe it. After feeling so humbled the other night.

"After the clapping for the NHS, to being abused this morning from a few people who haven't a clue what I had endured on my night shift.

"It's just horrible, people just don't know."

The nurse told the ECHO the incident left her so upset she "cried all the way home."

Today the manager of Aldi store, Ian Woodward, contacted the ECHO to condemn the behaviour of the customers who commented about the nurse.

Mr Woodward said: "I am not happy with how this woman felt at the comments made...

"She shouldn't be made to feel how she felt.

(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)

"The way that this has unfolded will not be tolerated and we can only be as helpful as possible to the NHS staff."

Mr Woodward is also now in contact with the nurse, who told the ECHO she had been "overwhelmed with messages of support" since her story was published.

Earlier she warned the public that they are likely to all be affected by coronavirus.

She said: "This disease, if it is as bad as they say, at some point is going to touch a lot of people's lives, whether it is a neighbour, a close family member, it is going to affect each and every one of us.

"But for the NHS staff, it does not feel as if we get the same respect as we used to."

Today the Department of Health and Social Care announced that a further 563 patients had died in the UK after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The total number of deaths now stands at 2,352.

