A year ago, stark press release told of first city Covid death. Sadly, it was the first of many
BIGGEST ART EVENT WILL HELP BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER AGAIN
Twelve months ago, the full impact of coronavirus was only just starting to dawn on many people. Events were being cancelled, schools sent pupils home, office staff were being told to work remotely if they could. But even so, for many, the significance of one sad event on Saturday, March 14 still passed them by – the first death from Covid-19 in a city hospital. A year on, Amy Orton looks at the impact of this awful virus
ONE year ago last weekend, the first of more than 1,300 Covid-related deaths at Leicester’s hospitals was confirmed. It was a man in his 80s, who had died at Leicester Royal Infirmary the previous day.
The press release was short, but shocking; it meant coronavirusrelated deaths had now come to Leicestershire.
“Sadly, we can confirm that a man who was being cared for at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and had tested positive for Covid-19, has died,” it read.
The man was one of 21 people at the time who had died after a positive coronavirus test. It’s a story we’ve written many times since.
We were documenting tens of deaths a day by the time we reached April, May and June, and then again as the number started to rise and hospital beds were again filled with the poorliest of patients through the winter and second spike.
The city and county has been through a lot in the past year, not least the families of those people who are no longer with us.
Some of those families we have spoken to.
Their experiences are tragic and heartbreaking.
They wanted to tell their stories to help humanise the virus that seemed set on doing the opposite to society.
One story, for instance, told of an eight-year-old girl sending heartbreaking texts to her grandad after his death from Covid-19.
The messages, which included “Miss you so so so so so so so so so so much” and “Please come back” equally were each followed with a red “not delivered” notification, because her “Pops” wasn’t there to read it.
Many held the hands of ones as they slipped away dressed in full PPE.
For some families, going to see their loved ones for the final time was the first time that they had seen them in weeks.
They were to become members of a small club no one wanted to join, but which was growing bigger by the day.
Lockdown meant – and still does mean – that the city’s hospital wards were visitorless, except for those people for whom the “no visit” rules loved while had finally, dropped.
Anyone walking onto one of the wards knew then – and still knows now – that there’s only one reason they are allowed to be there.
But for some families, the final contact with loved ones has been via a video screen, on a mobile or tablet, the last words being spoken digitally, without face-to-face contact.
Exhausted and emotional NHS staff have held iPads next to patients as they took their last breath.
Some people posted comments online which appeared to play down the significance of the deaths.
“The average age of the people heartbreakingly, been who die is 80-something,” said one, presumably suggesting the people who were losing their lives to Covid were close to death anyway.
“How many of them had other things wrong?”, said others, perhaps clutching at the hope that coronavirus was not as deadly as it appears.
But, however old the patients were, whatever other health conditions they might have had – at least some of which were not life-threatening in themselves – they all met a bleak end.
And it’s not yet over. The daily death figures are dropping, but are one too high for the families forced to organise funerals, still attended by no more than 30 people. And for the staff, the heartbreak and hard work continues.
Porters pushing patients on beds from wards to the ITU with no guarantees that they might be pushed back out again. The mortuary staff fetching bodies from bays. They’ve shared their stories too, all to try to prevent the need for makeshift Covid wards and devastating phone calls to families.
We never found out who that first 80-year-old man was, and we haven’t found out who many of the thousands of others are, and we likely never will. But we know that they are more than a number.
GIANT rocket sculptures springing up across the city in the summer could be just the thing to help bring people together, organisers believe.
Organised by Loros hospice together with art event producers Wild in Art, Rocket Round Leicester is described as the biggest public art event the city has seen.
It will feature a trail of giant and spectacular rocket sculptures through the spaces.
Each of the 40, intricately decorated sculptures will be sponsored by a business and individually designed by an artist – some wellknown, and some just starting out.
The trail will blast off on Monday, July 19, and the city will come back down to earth on Sunday, September 26.
After this, there will be the chance to say a final goodbye at a farewell event, before each rocket is auctioned city’s streets and open to raise funds for Loros.
Children have also been getting involved, decorating smaller versions of the rockets that will also go on display around the city. Laura Betts, fund-raising manager at Loros, said: “We’re very excited to bring Rocket Round Leicester to our amazing city and inject colour and conversation back to the streets.
“The trail will bring the community together following a challenging year and raise all-important funds for Loros hospice at a crucial time.
“Not only will the incredible rocket sculptures capture the hearts and imagination of the public, they’ll also honour Leicester’s incredible scientific heritage whilst looking to the future, too.”
Launching the scheme in August, Loros chief executive John Knight,, said: “Rocket Round Leicester will be the biggest and most exciting art project ever seen in Leicester.
“It will bring fun, colour and creativity to the city all for a brilliant cause.
“I would like to urge everyone to get involved and be part of something amazing for the city of Leicester.”
At Mowmacre Hill Primary, where the children took delivery of a Junior Jet rocket before Christmas, head teacher Matthew Peet said: ““This is a fantastic way for the children to work together as a school and part of the community in order to raise money for a deserving cause such as Loros Hospice.”
AN LGBT rights campaigner and councillor from Barwell is marking a decade of being openly gay by pledging to continue to fight for equality.
Mathew Hulbert, who was chairman of the Leicester LGBT Centre from 2017 to 2020, came out as gay to his family on his
31st birthday in February 2011.
This year marks his 41st birthday - and 10 years since he came out to his family.
Over the past decade, Mr Hulbert has served as a Hinckley and Bosworth Borough councillor and is currently a councillor for Barwell Parish Council. He has consistently campaigned for full equality for all LGBT people and communities.
Mr Hulbert said: “I can’t believe it’s been a whole decade since that day when I came out to my family and then the wider world – the years have flown by. “Thankfully, my family were all hugely supportive and accepting, but I know that for many LGBT people that isn’t always the case. “Though we’ve undoubtedly come a long way in recent decades, from the abolition of the discriminatory Section 28 - which prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools to the introduction of same sex marriage, sadly it can take a long time to change individual hearts and minds.
“The frontline of the fight for LGBT+ rights today is the need for full recognition, justice and equality for trans, non-binary, gender fluid and gender non-conforming individuals.”
Last year, Mr Hulbert was recognised at the Hinckley and Bosworth Making a Difference volunteer awards for his work helping to set up the True Colours LGBT events partnership, which organises events celebrating LGBT occasions, including LGBT History Month, which was marked online last month.
The longtime campaigner recently appeared on BBC Radio Leicester to talk about the change in attitudes and legislation in the decade since he came out and also the experience of being LGBT and a Christian.
He said: “In the early days of the fight for equality for gay men, like me, it was trans people and especially trans women who were always there, calling for justice, and, in return, it is right and just that we stand alongside trans people today in their own fight for equality. There is still much work to do.”
Among his roles, Mr Hulbert serves in a voluntary capacity as independent chairman of the Leicestershire Police and Fire LGBT Independent Advisory Group.
He has sat on several community panels as part of internal appointment processes in the police force.
However, Mr Hulbert said there were still issues facing the LGBT community, include bullying at schools and abuse of trans people.
“None are equal until all are equal, so the campaigning, the marching (when Covid rules allow), the lobbying, the raising of these issues in the media, continues until all are truly equal and can live as the fullest expression of themselves,” he said.
“In LGBT History Month, I paid tribute to all of those locally, nationally and internationally, who fought for equality down the decades but may not have lived to see how far we’ve come. Those of us campaigning today truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
“None of us know what the future holds, but I believe that, whatever struggles and challenges lie ahead and whatever rain may fall, the rainbow of LGBT equality will continue to shine and expand its reach.
“I pledge, in whatever way I can, be it large or small, to continue to champion LGBT rights and equality in the next ten years as I have in the past ten.”
I believe, whatever rain may fall, the rainbow of LGBT equality will continue to shine and expand its reach. Mathew Hulbert