We must never forget their sacrifice
Families of three nurses who lost their lives back campaign
THE families of three nurses who dedicated their lives to the NHS and died when they contracted Covid after refusing to retire have backed the Mail’s campaign to ensure they are ‘never forgotten’.
The devastated yet proud families of Margaret Tapley, Alice Kit Tak Ong and Sophie Fagan have today backed plans for a memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral to ensure all NHS heroes like these women are remembered for years to come.
Margaret Tapley, 84, was a great-grandmother and auxiliary nurse who dedicated more than 40 years to helping patients. She died on April 19 last year – nine days after her last shift. Mrs Tapley, from Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire, ‘gave her whole life to the NHS’, her granddaughter Hannah Tapley, 22, said.
Supporting the Mail’s campaign, she added: ‘So many people have been through similar experiences so having that extra support and somewhere to go is so important for everyone.’
Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, died when she caught Covid early in the first wave after dedicating more than 44 years to the NHS. Despite her age, she refused to stop working full-time in two busy GP surgeries in north London.
The mother-of-one sadly died on April 7 last year. She arrived in the UK in the 1970s from Hong Kong to work for the NHS because she believed it was ‘the best in the world’. Her daughter Melissa Ong, 38, said: ‘Mum loved her job, it was her life. She could have retired because she was 70 but she just loved her work so much and wanted to carry on.’
Backing the Mail’s campaign, she said: ‘It would be great to have somewhere permanent to go, for myself, my family, for my mother’s friends and all her patients. There was so many who sent lovely messages and would like to remember her.’ Sophie Fagan, 78, who was described as ‘part of the healthcare fabric in Hackney’ spent more than half a century serving patients before she became unwell. The grandmother, who began nursing in 1966, had been working as a care coordinator at Homerton Hospital in north-east London. It was here she sadly died after contracting the virus last April.
She had refused to retire and was still working in her role supporting carers in the week before she died. Mrs Fagan had arrived in England from India in 1961 aged just 16 to begin her nurse training. Her devastated daughter- in- law Deni Fagan said she was the ‘most amazing mother and grandmother’. Backing the Mail’s campaign, she said: ‘The lives of so many families like ours were completely changed by the pandemic and it is really important to remember that with a memorial like this.’