Ryan walks in memory of mum
AVALLEY schoolboy has held a sponsored walk to raise money in memory of his mum who passed away from Covid-19 last month.
Ryan Lambert, 14, along with dad Paul from Stacksteads, were raising the money for Royal Blackburn intensive care unit who looked after mum AnneMarie.
Anne-Marie, 45, died from Covid on March 3 in the hospital with both Ryan and Paul at her bedside.
The charity walk took place on Sunday and has raised £1,300 so far. Paul Lambert, who was married to Anne-Marie for 14 years, said the sponsored walk was all Ryan’s idea.
“We decided we wanted to raise money for the ICU that looked after her and tried to save her life,” said Paul, who works for a company which manufactures road safety signs.
“So we arranged a sponsored walk around Hollingworth Lake which has raised £1,300 so far with money still coming in.
“It was a lovely thing he did; it was all his own idea to do it.”
The walk was attended by family and friends including Ryan’s school friends at Whitworth High School, Brendon and Jayden, as well as headteacher Gillian Middlemas and Paul’s 72-year-old mother Angela.
Anne-Marie, a stay-athome mum, contracted the virus from Paul after he brought it home from work four weeks before her death.
Her funeral was held on March 14.
Paul said: “Unfortunately I caught Covid at work and before I realised I had Covid I passed it on to her and she had it worse than me.
“We had to get an ambulance out for her but unfortunately she didn’t make it.
“The sad thing was she was actually getting better but over the last two days she just went downhill and passed away with us by her side holding her hand.”
Anne-Marie suffered from fibromyalgia and depression, and Paul remembers her as a caring, family person.
“She was fun loving, happy - well as happy as she could be with her depression - but she would do anything for her family.
“She’d do anything for me and Ryan.
“She was a great mum and a great wife to me.”
Paul added that AnneMarie’s favourite hobbies were reading, watching TV and going on holidays with her family.
He said: “She couldn’t really do much because she suffered from fibromyalgia and other health conditions so she was limited to what she could do, so she looked after the house.
“Unfortunately she suffered from depression all her life so she couldn’t get into hobbies, but she enjoyed reading, especially Cathy Glass books, and going on day breaks.
“She liked going to Blackpool because it held a lot of family memories from years ago.”
Anne-Marie who moved to Rossendale with Paul from Denton, also leaves behind her brother Martin, who lives in Middlesbrough.
Paul hopes the money raised will go some way to thanking the staff at the hospital who helped AnneMarie.
He said: “I want to thank them very much for helping to try and save her life.
“They all work so hard in there, they really do and they were so upset when she didn’t make it.”