Nick Dennison says he made decision in effort to reduce risk to his son who has cancer

An NHS intensive care doctor working on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis has moved into a motorhome to protect his three-year-old son who has cancer.

Nick Dennison is an anaesthetist at Frimley Park hospital in Surrey, but is now working as an intensive care doctor to help put the most ill Covid-19 patients on ventilators.

His son, Alfie, has recently started a three-year chemotherapy programme as he fights cancer, so Dennison made the difficult decision to move out of the family home so he can continue treating coronavirus patients without putting Alfie at risk.

“I have had to make the difficult choice: to do my job and save lives of people I don’t know, or to be with my son whilst he battles cancer,” Dennison said in a Facebook post that has been shared more than 90,000 times. “This virus is a big threat to his life and, as I am going to be exposed this week doing my job, I can no longer live at home.

“Later this week I’ll be moving into a motorhome and will not be able to take any further part in his care for the next 6 months.”



Alfie celebrated his third birthday last week and is suffering from lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the immune system.

“Alfie hopefully will survive his cancer and chemo, but many people will die from flu. My heart is broken making this decision, but I choose to save the lives of strangers and leave him in the care of my beautiful wife and family,” Dennison said.

On Sunday, Frimley Park hospital reported the deaths of five patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 and Dennison said the intensive care unit was already full, with 12 patients on ventilators after contracting the virus.

“My hospital usually has 4-10 patients on ventilators and is planning and EXPECTING 80 patients to require ventilation,” he added.

He said two of his ICU colleagues at other hospitals are off work after contracting the infection and fears he could soon be in a similar situation. “As healthcare workers, we are now EXPECTING to catch it despite PPE.”

His post finished with a plea to the public to socially distance themselves from others to stop the spread of the disease and ease the burden on the already stretched NHS.

“Pubs have been busy, offices open, social events happening, kids parties etc. It all needs to stop,” he said.

“Infected people shed virus and it must be everywhere by now. It is your social responsibility to engage in social distancing. Actions NOW can prevent further disease transmission, ICU admissions and deaths in 10-20 days. Bottom line. SOCIALLY ISOLATE or people die in two weeks.”