COVID’S DEATH TOLL IS NOT A NUMBER
A year after Wales’s first virus-related tragedy, we remember just some of those to have lost their lives to this pandemic:
THEY are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, friends and colleagues. And they are the people in Wales who died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the last 365 days. There are nearly 5,500 of them.
On March 16, 2020, one year ago yesterday, Wales reported its first coronavirus victim. The 68-yearold passed away at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, in what was described at the time as the “first tragedy”.
While the country was bracing itself for what was to come, few people imagined the sheer scale of the grief that would follow. Since then, hundreds of families have been left to mourn, without a cwtsh or a hand on their shoulder from relatives or the community around them.
We remember and pay our respects to those no longer with us.
On April 11, 2020, news broke of the death of 65-year-old nurse Gareth Roberts, three weeks after the start of the first national lockdown.
A nurse for more than 45 years, Gareth had brushed off his wife Linda’s request for him to take “time out” and stay at home, instead carrying on the fight on the front line of the job he loved working.
His family claimed he was armed with just gloves, an apron and a mask at the start of the pandemic, before he fell ill, and was admitted to hospital with Covid alongside his mother. He didn’t make it back out. An inquest will be held later this year to answer questions about what happened during that time.
Between March 1 and May 31, 2020, 2,257 deaths were recorded in Wales involving Covid-19, according to the Office for National Statistics.
By the end of April, the number of deaths in Wales was 25% higher than the five-year average, one Welsh Government report found.
In both the first and second wave there was one sector that found itself particularly vulnerable – those caring for and living in care homes across Wales. The policy and decisions made around care homes in the first vital months of the pandemic has raised some important questions.
From March 1, 2020, to January 21, 2021, Care Inspectorate Wales was notified of 7,445 deaths across adult care homes, a figure 37% higher than the deaths reported for the same time period the previous year. Of those, 1,709 care home resident deaths were reported with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, equating to 23% of all reported deaths.
One of those who died in a care home was west Wales mother-of-two Ceinwen Williams. More than just a number, the 80-year-old former school cook was a loving mother and wife who dedicated her life to looking after everyone else along with husband Peter.
Married for nearly 60 years, the pair had been supporting each other before the pandemic,
If you’d try talking to him about [his MBE], he’d talk about something else. He didn’t want to accept that it was for his hard work, he just thought it was normal. I think he just enjoyed helping people. You always think your dad is the best at everything he does but it wasn’t until you started seeing the stories of how good he was at his job, I was kind of taken aback
- Gerallt’s son, Jonny
Ceinwen having been diagnosed with dementia and Peter battling with myeloma and prostate cancer. When Peter’s condition worsened, Ceinwen moved to a care home for temporary respite where she fell ill in the following months. After testing positive for Covid she died in
hospital 10 days later.
At the time their daughter Nicola Davies was left with an unthinkable situation, having to Facetime her father, who was also in hospital, to tell him of his Ceinwen’s passing on May 13. She is sure her dad died with a broken heart only a few months later.
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Nicola said: “They were lovely people. Of course, I’m biased, they’re my parents, but they were active people in the community with the chapel. In the chapel dad was always the main caretaker and mum was always the one in charge of the kitchen side. He did well over 40
years as the treasurer of the chapel.
“When my dad was working and it was a special birthday or something, I remember someone doing a speech and they said there were three things that were important to dad: the home, the chapel and the co-op. He was the manager of the Clynderwyn Farmers Co-op.”
When Nicola thinks of her parents, what comes to mind is not the tragedy of the past few months but the difference they made to their community in the hamlet of Rhoshill, near Carmarthen. As well as active supporters of the chapel, they were constantly fundraising for charities including Muscular Dystrophy UK.
In Swansea, the family of Gerallt Davies, the first paramedic to die with coronavirus in Wales, are still coming to terms with their loss.
Following the 52-yearold’s death on April 20, Jonny and his older brother Daniel were overwhelmed by hundreds of messages of condolence and tributes sharing the impact that their dad had in his field. As well as a respected paramedic, Gerallt was also a valued member of St John Ambulance and a familiar face at big events around the city from his work in the safety advisory group for the Liberty Stadium.
In 2019, he was appointed MBE for services to first aid provision in Wales. For Jonny and Daniel, however, Gerallt was first and foremost a great dad.
“He was very much a normal dad to us, and as a family as well, but we weren’t aware of the extent of what he was doing until we saw the tributes that were coming in,” Jonny, 27, said.
“He just never stayed still. We would always joke about whenever there was something he would have a plan regardless, a plan of doing something and making sure we could do everything. It’s kind of strange really how someone so ordinary was doing extraordinary things. It’s kind of cliche but they say not all heroes wear capes. He certainly didn’t wear one either and he was definitely a hero looking back at it and what he was doing and just going about as if it was normal.”
To those that knew him, Gerallt was many things. A paramedic by day, he was also an avid motorsports fan alongside his sons and a constant source of support to his parents Avril and Eifion, always kitting them out with the latest gadgets.
To colleagues he was a joker as well as a supportive hand, teasing the new recruits while helping them keep calm under enormous pressure.
Even those in the city centre will know of Gerallt, even if they don’t know him personally, thanks to initiatives of his like an area to care for people in trouble on a night out in Wind Street.
Despite all his achievements, however, Gerallt was desperately humble, not wishing to make a fuss even when he was ill at home with coronavirus, in need of medical care.
Jonny said: “If you’d try talking to him about [his MBE], he’d talk about something else. He didn’t want to accept that it was for his hard work, he just thought it was normal. I think he just enjoyed helping people. You always think your dad is the best at everything he does but it wasn’t until you started seeing the stories of how good he was at his job, I was kind of taken aback.
“The Welsh Ambulance have got a green ribbon on one of the new RRVS [rapid response vehicles], he’d normally be in a response vehicle. It’s got his paramedic number on it which is 6332 on the front with a ribbon. I’ve seen it around a couple of times, it’s quite a lovely thing when you see it going around, that he’s still doing his normal thing.”
By the time the second wave hit Wales in the second half of 2020, Wales was warned the worst was still yet to come. On December 30, the rate of people dying with coronavirus overtook that at the height of the first wave in April, followed two days later by the country’s deadliest 24-hour period which saw 55 deaths recorded.
As the loss in close-knit communities became ever clearer, so did the devastation that the virus has caused. These are just some of the people who have died with coronavirus over the last year:
■ Sharon Bamford, 63, was an auxiliary nurse at Singleton Hospital
■ Malcolm Bamford, 73, was a loving husband to Sharon
■ Mark Bowen, 52, was a “gentle giant” father and huge Liverpool FC fan
■ Jenelyn Carter, 42, worked on the admissions ward at Morriston Hospital
■ Steven Courtney-williams, 56, was a loving husband to David
■ Linette Cruz, 51, was a senior head nurse at the Brynteg dental practice, Sketty, Swansea.
■ Lynne Drummond, 73, was a former nurse for more than 30 years at Morriston Hospital
■ Becca Evans, 28, was a leader with Girlguiding and she also helped teach swimming and dance
■ Beverly Ford, 55, was a care worker for the learning disability service
■ Slyvia Harthen, 73, dedicated her time to working for countless Swansea charities
■ Karen Hobbs, 40, was a former air stewardess and dedicated mother to her five children
■ Helen Hurley, 54, was a former chef at a special needs school who doted on her grandchildren
■ David Jones, 63, was a popular local bus driver who was also known as “Dave the ice cream man”
■ Undeg Lewis, 59, was a shop worker and clerk of the community council in the Carmarthenshire village of Efailwen
■ John Moore, 96, was an RAF veteran who flew 27 of 30 allotted missions across Europe during the Second World War
■ Brian Mfula was a lecturer in mental health nursing at Swansea University who “taught from the heart”
■ Helen Mills, 56, was a healthcare support worker in the minor injury unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital
■ Jitendra Rathod, 62, was
One of Wales’ leading surgeons and a specialist in cardiac surgery
■ Liz Spooner, 62, was a registered nurse at Singleton Hospital for 41 years
■ Allan Tyler, 75, was a former computing lecturer at Afan College and teacher at Dylan Thomas Community School
■ Paul Wilkins, 59, was a delivery driver and “larger than life character”.
■ Josie Williams, 94, was the head of her family who loved to go out on adventures
■ Kevin Woolley, 42, was a loving father and Stagecoach bus driver
■ If you would like to pay tribute to a loved one you can email anna.lewis@ walesonline.co.uk