Widower’s plea to take COVID-19 threat seriously
Slough: Husband speaks of ‘pain and sorrow’ of losing wife Shabnum to virus
The widower of Slough councillor Shabnum Sadiq has revealed how his life was torn apart when his wife contracted COVID-19.
The widower of Slough Borough councillor Shabnum Sadiq has revealed how his life was torn apart in ‘four short weeks’ when his wife contracted COVID-19.
Mother-of-five Shabnum, 39, died on April 6 after she fell ill while attending a family wedding in Pakistan.
The Wexham Lea councillor, who travelled from the UK almost two weeks before the first national lockdown, started experiencing breathlessness a few days into her trip and spent 25 days on a ventilator before her death.
Her husband, Khizran Sadiq, said: “Our lives have been forever changed in just a month.
“From a life where she worked so hard with long hours with British Airways and then in her role on the council and responsibilities
to her ward residents, to being a mother and a wife doing so much in the house, it is all gone. For the first two months we just didn’t know what to do. We are only now just getting there.”
Cllr Sadiq’s death led to a huge outpouring of tributes from the community with her school friend and fellow councillor, Sabia Akram, describing her as an irreplaceable, community-centred person.
She had led a remarkable life, including defying pregnancy difficulties to give birth to quadruplets in June 2006.
Her husband also contracted the virus and was put into a
room next to his wife while doctors tried to save her.
He added: “People need to take this illness seriously – it has terrible consequences – I and my children are living with them every day.”
He said even as the family, including her 21-year-old daughter and 14-year-old quadruplets, still grieve he has had people speak to him and tell him symptoms are mild and they are not worried about it and they will carry on regardless without taking precautions.
Cllr Natasa Pantelic, cabinet lead for health and wellbeing, thanked Mr Sadiq for sharing his story to hopefully get others to understand the dangers of the virus.
She said: “It is truly terrible to see how one family has been forever changed because of this virus. We miss Shabnum at the council.
“This pain and sorrow is being replicated in other families in Slough and we have to work together to stop the virus spreading to more families. This is why the public health messages are in place to try to prevent people contracting the virus it the first place.”