The husband from one of the UK’s first couples with Down’s syndrome to marry has died from Covid-19, it has emerged. Tommy Pilling, 62, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, who had been treated in three different hospitals since early December with a chest infection, died on New Year’s Day. He and his wife Maryanne, 49, married 25 years ago. Family members said she was “completely devastated”. Her sister Lindi Newman, 33, described him as “one of a kind”. She said Pilling and her sister had never been apart for more than a few hours after her mother, Linda Martin, 70, unofficially adopted him and made him part of their family. “She doesn’t remember a life before Tommy,” Newman said of her sister. “The day she met him, she had the biggest smile on her face and she couldn’t stop talking about him.” Pilling, who had dementia, had been shielding for 10 months, but then was hospitalised with a chest infection on 1 December which led to the couple being separated for the first time. He died on 1 January, after testing positive for coronavirus on 17 December. Maryanne’s mother Linda said: “Tommy has left a vast hole in our lives that nobody will ever fill. “I considered him as my son and I’ve never regretted a single moment of the three decades he was in my care.” She praised the NHS staff who nursed him. “I cannot thank the staff enough, their care and compassion was outstanding – especially during these dreadful times,” she said. “They were all rushed off their feet but still made time to inform me daily regarding his condition.”