'The nurses have probably had the toughest time throughout this pandemic. Or, more correctly, the healthcare professionals doing the usual jobs of ITU nurses. For even if we can find more bed space, buy more ventilators, more drug pumps, we still can't buy more of the thing that sick ITU patients need the most, an ITU nurse. We have had to adapt and overcome to fill the potential gap in numbers if the surge happens. We asked our ITU staff who had left for other jobs to come back. We asked nurses who have never worked in ITU but had transferrable skills to come and help us. We asked theatre assistants and healthcare assistants from the wards to come and help us, and no-one refused; everyone wanted to help, even though they probably felt like they were putting themselves on the front line. They were the nurses who spent time speaking to the relatives over the phone or a video call, showing them their loved one asleep on a breathing machine, and holding a patient's hand if the worst happened. Sometimes these shifts broke them emotionally, sometimes the gruelling hours in PPE broke them physically, but they never lost their humour, their morale, or their professionalism.'

Other extracts and quotes from the book include Ian Brooks, operating department practitioner. Ian said, 'Thirty-one years ago, I started working in theatre. The virus is indiscriminate, ruthless and silent. The fear I felt every day was like a death sentence. I sat with my 21-year-old daughter one morning, and she asked how I was doing. I burst into tears and I just didn't know why.'

Louise, ITU nurse, 'A feeling of responsibility I've never faced before; holding a patient's hand and willing them to live for the sake of their poor family who can't be with them will live for ever with me.'

Andrew Edwards, theatre assistant, 'Nothing could prepare me for COVID. Walking into ITU was like walking into a horror movie, only this was very real. There were wires, pumps, flashing lights and alarms going off everywhere, but everyone kept their cool. It made me feel safe in the knowledge that the ITU staff had my back and we were in this together.'

Jessica Scurr, operating department practitioner, 'In my role, it's a real privilege to be there for the patients in the moments that they need us the most. We utilise our years of training and our specialised skills to provide the support they need, and do everything in our power to keep them safe and well. However, during this unique time, I've felt a compassion and empathy completely incomparable to anything I've every felt before. I try to channel those overwhelming emotions into being as kind and comforting as possible. I make sure patients have a hand to hold, I listen to what they have to say, and I hope my eyes show it. I hope they know I'm smiling behind my mask. In the darkest of moments, light has been found in encouragement and support of all my work colleagues. They have been shoulders to cry on and a reason to smile. We hold each other up through the highs and the lows, and it's a true honour to work alongside such incredible people.'

These were the experiences of the first wave in the spring. Sadly, we know that the winter has been harder. Rates are much higher than at any other point during the pandemic, and more people have died. ITU is seeing much sicker patients in this second wave, and they're seeing people in their thirties, forties and fifties. The staff continue to be incredible, but many will have not recovered from the spring. Many have been isolated from their own families to keep them safe, many are facing horrendous shifts after horrendous shifts, and tragically, many colleagues have been lost. Even if they're trained and experienced, they will not mentally and physically be prepared to go through this. Experienced staff from cleaners, porters, consultants and nurses have never seen anything like this over a sustained period of time. They're all tired and many of them have got what they've coined 'COVID fatigue'.

Sadly, it isn't just in our hospitals that staff are struggling. Our paramedics and ambulance service have been under immense pressure and they tragically lost their second member of staff to COVID on New Year's Day. The chief executive of the ambulance service trust Jason Killens has stated that at one point in December, 12 per cent of the service staff were either sick or having to self-isolate because of COVID. They've been under its highest level of alert, described as extreme pressure, since early December. This means that the staff have faced increased pressure through the normal volume of calls and workload, and then having COVID on top of that. Dr Catherine Goodwin, who is a consultant clinical psychologist, has told me, 'I think the biggest message we're hearing from staff at the moment is fear; fear for themselves, their families, and our patients, and the uncertainty that comes with the unknown.'