A TRIUMPH FOR DECENCY
Our wonderful readers donate £65,000 for Covid memorial in just two days After the Mail’s powerful campaign, rules limiting funerals to 30 mourners axed
THE Mail’s campaign to help create a memorial for Britain’s Covid victims is off to a magnificent start – with more than £ 65,000 donated in two days.
Generous readers have backed the plan to honour the 127,000 victims with a moving tribute in St Paul’s Cathedral, taking the total raised to more than £500,000.
It came as ministers announced plans to scrap the 30-mourner limit at funerals following a campaign by this newspaper.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick last night praised the Mail for ‘rightly
highlighting the profound sadness’ suffered by grieving families.
Campaigners had warned that the ‘inhumane’ limits on funerals would mean another 80,000 families would suffer under the cruel rules unless ministers amended the roadmap.
The Government has bowed to the pressure and agreed to allow funeral venues to invite as many mourners as their capacity safely allows.
On a day of positive news in the fight against coronavirus:
More than 15 million of the UK’s most vulnerable have received two coronavirus jabs – offering them maximum immunity;
The number of jabs given is on course to pass 50 million today;
Overseas holidays look set to be given the go-ahead in a fortnight, with the long-awaited ‘green list’ of quarantine-free countries to be published at the end of this week;
Social distancing restrictions could be scrapped from June 21, although mask-wearing may stay in place;
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the country was in the ‘last lap’ of the fight against Covid – with just a ‘little bit more time’ until all legal restrictions on social interaction are removed.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens last night welcomed the plans for a memorial dedicated to the lives lost – directly or indirectly – to Covid. He said: ‘ Nurses, doctors, and countless other staff have witnessed first-hand the terrible toll this virus has inflicted, despite their tireless work to save lives.
‘As restrictions lift and we return to a more normal way of life, it is right that we honour and remember all those whose lives were taken by this cruel virus.’
NHS hospitals have treated 400,000 seriously ill patients with Covid-19 – a virus which has claimed the lives of 127,524 across the UK.
Generous readers have donated £65,500 towards the St Paul’s crowdfunding website since the Mail’s campaign was launched on Saturday. It takes the total raised to £505,500, with £440,000 being raised by St Paul’s since it set up the site in February.
It came as ministers finally announced a relaxation to the cruel restrictions on funerals – a fortnight after the Mail launched its Death of Decency campaign.
Religious leaders, charities, MPs and the funeral sector demanded that the limit of 30 mourners be raised to allow more friends and relatives to say a final farewell to loved ones. Conservative former minister Sir John Hayes, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on funerals and bereavement, said the rule change was a ‘huge victory for common sense’.
‘The Government has done exactly the right thing following the work done by the allparty group and the public demand – expressed through the excellent campaign run by the Daily Mail.
‘The argument we made reflects what I know was real concern by people who have loved and lost who simply want to give their person, to whom they are offering a final goodbye, the most dignified and fitting possible funeral. It is really positive and very good news that we are returning to something more like normal.’