How you made sure we will never forget

BY your inspiring and unfailing generosity, you have made sure that Britain’s Covid dead will never be forgotten.

In just four weeks, Mail readers have helped St Paul’s Cathedral raise the whole £2.3million needed to create a permanent memorial to our grievous national loss.

Even by your stratospheric standards, it is a stunning achievement.

The result will be a magnificent new portico at the North Transept of the cathedral, leading into a commemorative space, where the bereaved can mourn and all may contemplate Covid’s human cost.

The name of every casualty will be recorded in the ever-growing online Book of Remembrance. And though the cathedral is a Christian monument, this is a truly multi-faith endeavour. Coronavirus didn’t discriminate on grounds of race or creed, and neither will the memorial.

Coming on the back of the recordbreaking £25million you gave to our campaigns to provide PPE for front-line workers and computers for disadvantaged schoolchildren, we had reservations about asking you to dip into your pockets again. That you did so freely and without hesitation is a tribute to your altruism and proves this was a cause which fired the imagination. Some 10,000 of you made donations.

It puts into perspective the petty squabbling of politicians both this week and throughout this crisis. While they have bickered, you have realised a grand project which affects real lives.

In that same can-do spirit, there will be no dithering or delay in getting started. The plans are approved and preparatory work will begin next week.

At 127,000, the virus death toll is already more than three times that of the Blitz. Most were elderly but many were not.

There were babies as well as centenarians and we lament every one. Thanks to you, they will be remembered together in a lasting, poignant and tangible memorial.