Coronavirus: Nurse's exam success celebrated with social distancing

Elke Hegarty (top right) said neighbours wanted to celebrate the success of Helen Wood (bottom left)

A group of neighbours celebrated an exam success "together but apart" by bringing chairs out on the street.

The friends, who live in Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, wanted to celebrate Helen Wood passing her prescribing nurse exam.

They could not get together in their usual way due to social distancing advice, so sat in their front gardens.

One of them, Elke Hegarty, said: "We weren't going to let that blinking old virus stop us."

'Human contact'

Mrs Hegarty said asthma nurse Ms Wood had been working very hard, so when she passed they "couldn't let it go unmarked".

Mrs Hegarty said: "It was so nice, such a silly thing but such good fun... you do what you can to look after each other - human contact is so important."

Health secretary Matt Hancock has reiterated the government's message that people who do not live together should stay at least two metres apart from each other in order to stop the virus spreading.

Mrs Hegarty's post on a Facebook group set up to provide tips for social distancing drew more than 2,000 comments, with a handful saying that they were taking a risk.

One poster said "at home, means at home".

Mrs Hegarty said: "We were two metres apart and there was loads of room - if somebody had walked down the path we'd have just moved."