A NURSE who came off a 12 hour shift at hospital has described the moment she tried to help a pensioner with suspected coronavirus after he crashed into her car.

Lucy Duncan, from Atherton was on her way home from the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary on Thursday when someone crashed into her car then carried on driving.

Confused, Lucy, 24, went to see why the person was driving strangely and found a 73-year-old man slumped at the wheel and struggling to breathe.

The man then grabbed at Lucy and said he feared he had coronavirus.

Mental health nurse Lucy, who is currently on isolation due to the incident, said: "It was my seventh shift in a row and I couldn't get wait to get home and have a takeaway but then I got crashed into.

"When I saw it was an old man I felt it was safe to knock of the window and I saw that he wasn't well.

Leigh Journal:

"He grabbed my arm and said 'I'm so sorry I think I've got coronavirus', he was in and out of consciousness and was sweating loads.

"I went back to my car and got a mask as I have no other PPE stuff with me and he had one too which he put on.

"He got out the car in his moments of lucidness and was apologising about my car but I just said 'I'm not worried about the cars I'm worried about you.'

"He said he hadn't eaten for seven to 10 days because he'd been isolated.

"I called for an ambulance and then I assisted the paramedics because I'd already been exposed and they didn't need to be.

"I gave him my number but I just couldn't leave him and I followed him back to the hospital.

"Every time I came back in his eyes lit up, like he was surprised.

"He said he wanted to find his son who he said lives in Milton Keynes but who he hadn't spoken to for years.

"Then I had to go because he was too poorly.

"I didn't think of myself at that moment, but because I was exposed my mum, who is also in the NHS, and my family have had to move out for 14 days for me to self isolate, so that's quite tough.

"Especially because I learned that the man died at 1am on Saturday morning, I'd like to give my mum a cuddle really.

"I just wanted to come home and have a takeaway that night, I still haven't had that but I'm just so glad I was with him.

"I'm a mental health nurse, I'm used to people in crisis but not like that. It's the first time in a long time I had to deal with something like that. But that's my job. I'm a nurse and we help whenever we can"