£24k drive inspired by my grief for Dad
A GRIEVING daughter who lost her father to Covid has raised £24,000 for the Remember Me campaign to create a lasting tribute to all those lost in the pandemic.
Annette Allen, 60, began her fundraising with the Yellow Hearts To Remember movement after losing her father Ray Maskell, 88.
The movement was founded by David Gompertz, who was widowed by the virus, with a simple idea – for the bereaved to display a yellow heart as an act of remembrance to those taken by the virus.
Mrs Allen, a teaching assistant from Bournemouth, had been left devastated after not being able to visit her father before he died in a nursing home in April last year and found great comfort in the group.
Wanting to honour his memory, she started raising money online via Crowdfunder by sending out yellow heart pin badges in return for a donation to the Remember Me campaign.
Today the mother-of-one has raised just over £24,000 towards the national memorial at St
Paul’s Cathedral which will feature a grand oak portico engraved with the words ‘Remember Me’.
Together with more than a million pounds raised by the Daily Mail’s campaign and funds already collected by St Paul’s, it means that almost £1.5million has been pledged towards the £2.3million tribute.
‘It felt like we lost Dad twice over – first to dementia and then to Covid,’ Mrs Allen said. ‘The pain of not being able to comfort him in his final moments was incredibly difficult to carry. I needed a way to tell the world he had gone, that he mattered and would always be remembered.’
She added: ‘Dad was born in London, and he was very fond of
St Paul’s Cathedral, visiting it often... the idea of him being honoured there means so much.
‘This memorial means that he’ll be more than just a statistic to history too – he’ll be remembered in a place that was already in his heart. That gives me great pride and is a huge comfort.’
The Yellow Heart To Remember movement was created by retired medical scientist Mr Gompertz, 84, after he lost wife Sheila to the virus last year.
His idea was for those who had lost someone to Covid-19 to put a yellow heart in a window of their home as an act of remembrance. A year on, Yellow Hearts To Remember is a Facebook support group for the grieving with more than 7,000 members and Mr Gompertz is backing the Remember Me campaign.
‘Our Facebook group is transitory in its nature – a place where people can share how they feel in a particular moment – whereas a memorial is a permanent statement of love for those we have lost, and something that can be physically visited,’ the grandfather from Birmingham said.
‘I was very pleased to be asked to get involved with the Remember Me campaign. In the years to come that’s something people will always need.
‘This is a place where people can come and share how they’re feeling and their memories of the loved ones they lost.
‘We’re not a religious family, but St Paul’s is a beautiful building that transcends religion.’ Mr Gompertz’s wife Sheila, a retired computer scientist, died aged 83 in a care home in April last year.
TO DONATE ONLINE VISIT: crowdfunder.co.uk/rememberme