Devoted son camps out near Sheffield hospital to visit paralysed dad for an hour every day

Scott Hayes, 38, travelled up to Sheffield from Colchester after his dad Trevor was taken into the specialist Osbourn Ward at the Northern General Hospital, which looks after patients with spinal injuries.

Trevor, 63, has been paralysed from the eyes down after he was hit by a car near his home in Skegness in March – an incident that is being investigated by Lincolnshire Police.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Scott is only allowed to visit his dad for one hour per day, so he has set up camp near the hospital so that he is close enough to go in daily to care for his father.

Scott said: “My dad is my king. And I just want to say how fantastic the NHS nurses and hospital staff have been in looking after him.

"He was brought in to the Osborn Ward on March 26 and the nurses have been so understanding and were arranging for me to call him every day.

"But I wanted to be there for him, so I needed to come up to Sheffield from Colchester. I came up on April 6 and camped out so I could go in every day.”

Every morning Scott has to make sure he is clean enough to go in to the hospital, and he says that he has been helped by people from the nearby mosque and staff at the Tesco Express.

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"I have never camped out before in my life,” Scott said. “The police have been very understanding and the staff at Tesco have been fantastic. They charge my phone every morning.”

Trevor is receiving physio daily and Scott, who has been vaccinated against Covid, is able to go in and help by giving him a shave and talking to him.

He has been sending daily video updates to his sisters, and the family raised some money to make a flower display to say thank you to the nurses.

Scott added: "I couldn’t be any more grateful for the NHS. I wish I could hug them all and scream from the rooftops about how good they have been for my dad.”