A vegan anti-vaxxer who refused to have the jab because they had been tested on animals told his wife he ‘wish he’d had the vaccine’ before he died.
Glynn Steel, 54, tested positive for Covid after taking a lateral flow test on October 27, but after his health started to decline his wife Emma, 50, took him to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
He was placed in intensive care and then an induced coma, but tragically he died on November 16 – just two months from his 55th birthday.
Glynn, of Malvern, Worcestershire, had planned to retire and spend more time traveling and looking after animals.
Emma, who is double-jabbed, says she is now facing ‘an empty future alone’ and has called on everyone to take the vaccine.
‘I insist to everyone I know to get the vaccine.’ she said.
‘The last thing Glynn said to me was ‘I have never felt so ill, I wish that I had had the vaccine’. It was heart-wrenching.
‘He begged for the vaccine when he was in intensive care before he went on life support
but they said that it was too late.
‘I’ve been crying myself into a dehydration every night and letting the tears flow like a river in the morning and waking up in the night crying.
‘It’s having to tell people that loved him that they will never see him again and seeing that pain in them. I’m used to trying to make people laugh, not cry.
‘He was a very gentle soul, he was a vegan and didn’t want the Covid vaccine because it was tested on animals.’
Glynn cared for a total of six rescued cats and dogs at his home and even brought a dog in need back from a holiday in Sri Lanka.
He was hesitant to receive the vaccine after reading that producers including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson had tested theirs on animals.
A freedom of information request on animal studies performed for COVID-19 vaccines to the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that by law, medicines are ‘required to be tested on animals’.
Their Customer Service Centre said: ‘Regarding the question concerning animal testing in general, by law, new medicines are required to be tested on animals before they can advance to phase testing on human volunteers in clinical trials.’
Glynn had started off with just a cold which gradually got worse when he tested positive for Covid.
He deteriorated rapidly because of his age and lack of vaccine and Emma had to call an ambulance on November 2.
But she was told none were available and she, therefore, had to take her unconscious 19-
stone husband to the hospital herself.
There were 12 ambulances queuing outside Worcestershire Royal Hospital when she arrived with him, she said.
Emma added: ‘I still don’t know how I got him in my car. He was so heavy that I couldn’t even push him in a wheelchair at the hospital.
‘Eventually, a young lad appeared and offered to help, he was there because his mum was also unwell and couldn’t get an ambulance either, so he had to bring her to the hospital like I did.’
Glynn was quickly admitted to intensive care but by the 10th he was put on life support and in an induced coma.
Emma said: ‘I was with him when he died. I was wearing a full PPE kit so I couldn’t touch 
him, but they played his favorite music by the Sex Pistols and I stayed with him until the end.’
Glynn died within 20 minutes of life his life support being turned off.
Despite two weeks passing, Emma says she still cannot imagine life without him.
‘I will forever miss our friendship, our partnership, our love, and our connection to each other,’ she said.
‘I sometimes think need to text the word TALK to the suicide hotline when my thoughts get really loud and scary and take over’.
