Over £50,000 raised for funeral of UK’s youngest coronavirus victim, 13

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from Brixton, south London, passed away at King’s College Hospital on Monday morning after being put into an induced coma.

More than £50,000 has already been raised for the funeral of a 13-year-old boy who died after contracting coronavirus.

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from Brixton, south London, passed away at King’s College Hospital on Monday morning after being put into an induced coma.

He is thought to be the youngest person to die from Covid-19 in the UK.

His devastated family said the young teenager had no pre-existing health conditions and died alone due to isolation rules around the severely infectious virus.

The Mohamed family said: ‘Ismail started showing symptoms and had difficulties breathing and was admitted to Kings College Hospital. He was put on a ventilator and then put into an induced coma but sadly died yesterday morning.

‘To our knowledge he had no underlying health conditions. We are beyond devastated.’

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Mark Stephenson, a family friend, set up a GoFundMe page to cover the funeral costs, and tens of thousands of pounds has been donated, far exceeding the initial target of £4,000.

He wrote: ‘It is with great sadness to announce that the younger brother of one of our teachers at Madinah College has sadly passed away this morning (Monday 30th March 2020) due to being infected with Covid 19.

‘Ismael was only 13 years old without any pre-existing health conditions and sadly he died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of Covid 19.

‘We at Madinah College would like to appeal to our brothers and sisters to donate generously to help raise £4000 for the funeral costs and to support the family, who sadly also lost their father to cancer.

‘May Allah grant the family patience through this difficult time and make it a means of drawing closer to Him.’

The news of Ismail’s death came soon after it emerged a 19-year-old with no underlying health conditions had died, become the UK’s youngest victim.

Deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, said the deaths of young people with no pre-existing health conditions is a ‘really sad’ reminder that everyone must follow government guidelines on social distancing.

Speaking during the daily coronavirus briefing from Downing Street yesterday, Dr Harries said: ‘Although what we know about this disease is that, in general, younger people are not having significant severe illness, it is the case, very sadly… that young people can still be affected.’

Dr Harries said younger people ‘tend not to think of death’ and so it is ‘quite easy perhaps to not think of yourself as part of the risk, or part of the affected group’.

She added: ‘They are really sad reminders that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you should be staying at home and observing all the social distancing measures we have highlighted.’

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