A NURSE has told of how her daughter is being targeted with verbal abuse because her mother is working on the frontline treating coronavirus patients.
Denise Kelly, who has been a nurse for more than 20 years, said people had called her 12-year-old daughter Ciara, "ci-rona-virus".
She also said there was a perception that front-line workers are "cannon fodder".
Ms Kelly, who is from Larne, was speaking about the difficulties she faced as nurse as well as the impact her job has on her family.
"I have a 12-year-old daughter called Ciara, unfortunately she has had people referring to her as ci-rona-virus, using euphemisms of the term coronavirus because her mum's a nurse," she told BBC Good Morning Ulster.
"We are being viewed nearly as lepers. Not just us as front-line workers but our children too, and our families.
"It is causing a lot of tensions."
She also said that she had heard of businesses advising that if NHS staff "came in, don't touch anything because you might contaminate it".
"There's a fear of people distancing away from us or you work in hospital, you work with those patients, you might give something to us - that has massive social and physiological implications for us too," she said.
"I don't think people can underestimate the effect."
"We are out there saving lives, we are trying to do our best for the public and again that perception is that we are a leper and to an extent when we talk about PPE, canon fodder, especially if we are being asked to re-use.
"We being put on the frontline here and risking our lives."
