A SOUTHAMPTON nurse has posted a powerful piece of poetry urging people to follow lockdown guidelines and save lives.

Tori Wills, a Sister in the city's Intensive Care Unit (ICU), felt compelled to write Stay Home after seeing families flouting the rules in the sunshine over the Easter weekend.

Tori, who has worked in ICU for seven years and has been a Sister for one, posted a video of her delivering the heartfelt message on social media and urged friends to share it.

In it, she describes an 'apocalyptic situation' for 'underfunded, underprepared and underprotected' NHS staff.

The moving prose talks of nurses 'gowning up, hearts pounding with fear, tired from nightmares that are no longer inconceivable'.

Tori describes the situation as a 'tsunami that requires an army' and criticised those that 'cheered us but went to the grass, sunbathed and jeered us'.

Mum Tori, who lives in Eling, told the Daily Echo: "I think I posted it out of frustration and desperation on a day where I had seen people have parties in their gardens, post items for sale on Facebay, made whole days out of ‘essential exercise’ and teenagers gathering in parks. None of these things are essential.

"I have been writing poems and spoken word since I was a teenager, and have never posted a single verse. But the fact is, my colleagues are literally risking their lives, which they didn’t sign up to do. They have never worked harder, or with more integrity and passion. And yet people are still not following a very simple request, which is to stay home."

Stay Home has already been shared hundreds of times and attracted comments including 'brave and poignant', 'great words, great delivery' and 'the world needs more people like you'.