{"id":28694,"date":"2021-04-29T13:22:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T12:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28694"},"modified":"2021-04-30T11:29:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T10:29:41","slug":"my-dad-wasnt-just-a-statistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28694","title":{"rendered":"‘My dad wasn’t just a statistic’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) this year is unlike any that we have marked before, with an untold number of workers across the globe having succumbed to Covid-19 after having contracted it at their workplace or because of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UK alone, it is estimated that some 15,000 working age people died from coronavirus, leaving families traumatised by devastating loss. Now, many of these families have joined together to ensure that their loved ones are remembered  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that other families are not made to endure the ineffable pain that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Memorial Day, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and other leaders from the trade union movement joined some of these family members at the National Covid Memorial Wall in London adjacent to St. Thomas’ Hospital, which is covered in individually hand-painted hearts commemorating each life lost in the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more than 155,000 hearts now painted on the wall, the memorial stretches nearly a mile long and takes a full ten minutes to walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Grief is now a permanent feature of our lives’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Brady, 25, (pictured below) traveled from Wigan with her sister Tasha to reiterate their call to make the wall permanent and for the government to agree to a full public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hannah and Tasha lost their father, Shaun Brady, a factory worker in Wigan and Unite member, when he was only 55 years old. It is believed he caught the virus at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah described her father as both a dedicated worker at the Heinz factory who hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a day off sick since Hannah was three years old, a loving a family man and someone was dedicated to his community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy dad was really passionate about charity, and he was passionate about youth football; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been a volunteer referee since he was 18, he taught free after school football clubs for children of all ages and abilities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Hannah told UniteLive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe was a keen baker, although some of it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite edible but we still ate it! He was really into travelling and finding his own independence. He renewed his passport at 54 and we had no idea that he would die at 55.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah described the trauma of her family not being able to visit her father, who spent 42 nights in hospital on a ventilator in a coma, and not being able to grieve in the normal way, with very restricted, socially distanced funerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no human contact and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one thing that can help you in grief,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt means that a lot of the Covid bereaved are suffering from things like prolonged grief syndrome and PTSD from what we saw in ICUs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah said the case for making the Covid Memorial Wall permanent was clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis wall should be made permanent because grief will now be a permanent feature of 156,000 families\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lives,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI will live my life permanently not having a dad, my future children will permanently not have a granddad. Why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a memorial wall which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t political \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 156,000 hand-painted hearts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it be made permanent?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘My dad was my hero’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Fowler, who is one of the founders of a campaign group for bereaved families which helped create the Covid Memorial Wall, lost his father, Ian Fowler, when he was just 56 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew (pictured above) described his father Ian, who was a semi-retired design engineer at JLR Castle Bromwich and Unite member, as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe life of the party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the ones he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invited to\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe was a family man, he loved his wife and children very much,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Matthew told UniteLive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe was my hero \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said time and time again that I am who I am because of his influence.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Hannah, Matthew spoke of the pain of grief during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I will be able to grieve properly until all of this is over \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both the state of the pandemic as it is and the subsequent fall-out afterwards,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been forced to handle grief in a very isolated fashion which has been very difficult. I remember standing in the funeral home with my mum and not being able to hug her which was torturous, and I know that a lot of other people have experienced the same.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew highlighted the importance of a public inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI would like the government to think carefully over what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened over the last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I would like to see as many MPs as possible walk this wall and take in the scale of the impact this pandemic has had,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI ask them to think carefully about what we can do to prevent any of this happening again \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not just in the wake of Covid-19 but in preparation for any future world events like it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We’re still circling the void of loss’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leshie Chandrapala — who lost her father, Rajith Chandrapala, a London bus driver and Unite member — agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very painful to think that my father need not have lost his life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c better protection could have meant that he would still have been here with us today,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI have lots of questions about why he died and why so many bus drivers have died of Covid. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling for a public inquiry on Workers’ Memorial Day.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leshie (pictured above) believes the Covid Memorial Wall must be made permanent because it connects all those families to the great loss the that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve endured. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy dad wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just a statistic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he was a living, breathing human being with his own hopes and dreams and ambitions, with lots of love and lots family and friends he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left behind,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told UniteLive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leshie described her father Rajith, who was just on the cusp of retirement and drove the number 92 bus in Ealing, as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bso funny, so warm and really kind\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe was really connected to everyone around him. He was so comfortable in his own skin that so many people just gravitated towards him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he was always the centre of attention at parties. He played the guitar, loved to sing and dance and wrote poems too. He was very wise but wore it lightly.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite it being almost a year since her father died, Leshie says she still struggles to process her grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you how excruciatingly painful those days were when was in hospital \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it felt like hell,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHell is a place on earth and that was hell. I was pleading to all the gods to bring him back to me. It will be dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one year anniversary next week but I still feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just circling that void of that great loss to our family.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love and anger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey praised the bereaved family members for their bravery in speaking out and said Unite would be supporting them all the way in their fight to make the wall permanent and to secure a full public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis wall is an incredible memorial and one that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to pay my respect to,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Len told UniteLive after walking the wall (pictured below, with Hannah and Tasha). \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to congratulate the bereaved families and their campaign for putting this together and also to offer my condolences to all of the people who have lost loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI urge everyone here in London to come visit this wall \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a highly emotional experience and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also here for us not only to remember the dead but also fight for justice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd that justice here is fighting for a public inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlthough this wall is full of love, it also brings for me an element of anger,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Len continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow many of these 156,000 lives could have been saved if the government had acted quickly enough on a whole host of different issues that we urged them to do such as PPE provision? We need this wall to become a permanent memorial and we need a public inquiry so that the questions that these bereaved families still have are answered. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only way that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get closure.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can support the campaign to make the National Covid Memorial Wall permanent by donating here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pics by Mark Thomas<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) this year is unlike any that we have marked before, with an untold number of workers across the globe having succumbed to Covid-19 after having contracted it at their workplace or because of work. In the UK alone, it is estimated that some 15,000 working age people died from coronavirus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1295,1632,516],"wps_subtitle":"Bereaved Covid families demand a public inquiry into the pandemic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and seek to make Covid Memorial Wall permanent","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28694"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28763,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694\/revisions\/28763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}