Nurses gather in an army of blue to clap for their colleague Fiona Anderson

The family of a Sunderland nurse who died after contracting COVID-19 say they feel 'proud and overwhelmed' after her fellow NHS friends and colleagues turned up to support them during last nights Clap for Carers.

48-year-old Fiona Anderson, a community staff nurse at the Grindon Lane Primary Care Centre, lost her life on Sunday 26th April.

• Read more: Tributes to Sunderland nurse who has died after contracting COVID-19

The South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust say Fiona devoted her life to helping others and joined the Trust in 2007.

During Thursday's 8pm clap, many of Fiona's team stood on her street to applaud their beloved colleague.

Our reporter Amy Lea joined them.

On Friday 1 May, it was announced a nurse from South Shields died after contracting COVID-19.

Father-of-two Keith Dunnington, 54, died on April 19. He worked as an agency nurse and most recently, on the frontline of Ward 12 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.

As of today, the number who have died with COVID-19 in hospitals in the North East and North Yorkshire has risen to 1,215.

Read more:

• York NHS critical care nurse says returning to work is like 'alternate universe'

• Region observes a minute of silence to remember key workers who have died

• North East has highest coronavirus infection rate