Dean Greenaway, a “fun and loving” father who was “Manchester United mad”, has sadly died after contracting Covid-19 while living at an Ipswich care home.

The former handyman, aged 62, died on Monday, March 30 after being admitted to Ipswich Hospital with symptoms of Covid-19 less than 24 hours earlier.

According to his partner Michelle Joyce – who is the mother of his two youngest children, Kayleigh, 21, and Jamie, 13 – tests confirmed Mr Greenaway had the virus a few days after his death.

Mr Greenaway, who loved gardening and fishing, had moved to St Osyth, from London 18 years ago and worked as a bricklayer, painter and decorator.

He had spent the last three years of his life in a care home in Ipswich following an operation which left him with brain damage.

More: Subscribe to our daily coronavirus newsletter, with all the latest from where you liveMs Joyce, Dean’s partner of 24 years, says she was “devastated” and shocked at how Mr Greenaway had deteriorated so quickly.

She said: “I can’t get my head around his death, he was such a lovely man and I am truly heartbroken.

“He was fun, loving, he was Manchester United mad, and he loved the outdoors.”

When he was taken to hospital, Mr Greenaway was struggling to breathe and Ms Joyce says he was relying on 15 litres of oxygen.

She said the care home, like many others across the country, had gone into lockdown three weeks ago and her regular visits to see Dean had been stopped as he was classed as being vulnerable due to only having one lung.

“It’s sad to think we didn’t get to see him and we couldn’t say goodbye,” said Ms Joyce, who was only able to visit Mr Greenaway in the mortuary the day after he died.

Ms Joyce and her children have since gone into isolation as a precautionary measure and have not been able to see any other members of their family.

Speaking of the “love of her life”, she said: “He loved being in the garden, he loved sunbathing and he was a big fan of the outdoors.

“He was a great dad to Kayleigh, Jamie and his two older children Aimee and Dean.”

Ms Joyce is urging people to listen to the government’s advice to stay at home and says this “could have happened to anybody”.

“Never in a million years did I think this would happen,” she admitted.

Mr Greenaway’s funeral will be held at the beginning of May and will be attended by his immediate family.

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