Families bereaved by Covid-19 have begun painting a vast memorial wall in an “outpouring of love” opposite the Houses of Parliament.
The moving tribute features a heart for every single loved one lost to coronavirus - with numbers totalling nearly 145,000 for each person with Covid-19 on their death certificate.
Work began on the poignant installation this morning and is expected to take a week to complete and will stretch to nearly half a kilometre along the Embankment opposite Parliament.
“This is an outpouring of love,” said Matt Fowler, co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who lost his dad Ian, 56, to the virus.
“Each heart is individually hand-painted - utterly unique, just like the loved ones we’ve lost. And like the scale of our collective loss, this memorial is going to be enormous.
“We think it’ll take several days to complete and it’s going to stretch for more than half a kilometre. We know not everyone can come down here to see it, but we really hope this can become a focal point for remembering this national tragedy.
“We’ve placed it at the heart of our capital so that the Government never loses sight of the personal stories at the heart of all this.”
Paying tribute to Ian, a design engineer at Jaguar Land Rover from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, he told the Mirror: “The first heart that I drew was for my dad. We are coming up to the first anniversary of his death now. This time last year he was in hospital at the George Elliott in Nuneaton.
“It would be around this time that they would have been intubating him and putting him on a ventilator. I still didn't think that he was in any danger to be honest. We felt he was in the best place and I couldn't fault the staff at the hospital – they really fought hard for him.
“He was my hero, he really was. I loved my dad. I am who I am because of him.
“It was emotional painting his heart but I had to do this. I felt like everybody should have had the chance to get to know him. He was a really special guy. I need to make sure that they remember.”
Fran Hall, 60, joined the team of 40 volunteers and drew a heart for her late husband Steve Mead, 65, from Denham, Bucks.
Steve, a retired police officer who was battling prostate cancer when he contracted the virus, passed away just a month after the pair married after 11 years together.
Fran told the Mirror: “He was the first heart I did.
“I believe he caught the virus when he was going for radiotherapy. We got married on a Saturday and the following day he was really tired. We thought he had just over done it with the wedding. But he just felt really ill and tested positive for Covid two days later.
“At first he seemed to be OK but his breathing was just getting worse. So I had to phone an ambulance for him. I didn't think I would see him again.
“He was in hospital for 12 days but I was allowed to go and be with him for the last 36 hours. I was very lucky. So many people didn't have that opportunity.
“Today I actually feel really positive because I am actually able to do something. I feel like I have just had to sit not doing something for so long.
"It's just good to be able to do something positive and represent each person with a heart and help people visually see just how many people we lost.
“It has been such a horrendous year for everybody and we have all just become numb to the numbers. Steve wasn't a number, he was a person. Every single one of the 150,000 people who have died – they shouldn't have died when they did.
“Hopefully the prominent position and hopefully the politicians who are making decisions will look out of their windows and see.”
To visit the fundraiser set up by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, click here.
