Calls to make Covid-19 memorial wall permanent

The man who painted the first heart on the UK's largest Covid memorial hopes it will become a permanent tribute to lives lost in the pandemic.

Matthew Fowler, who lost his dad to Covid in 2020, drew a heart on a wall along the South Bank of the River Thames "as an act of love" in 2021.

Exactly two years on and more than 200,000 drawings later, volunteers have continued to fix fading hearts.

"It should represent the scale of the impact that Covid had," Mr Fowler said.

Mr Fowler's father Ian died in April 2020 after contracting Covid a month earlier, before the country went into lockdown.

The first heart was drawn on the National Covid Memorial Wall, opposite the Houses of Parliament, by Mr Fowler on 29 March 2021.

"It was an immeasurable honour to draw that first heart," the 35-year-old from Nuneaton told the BBC.

"Maybe it was an act of defiance, but more so it was an act of love.

"There was nothing to acknowledge all those people, nothing to properly memorialise them.

"I miss my dad every day... he was a huge inspiration and inspired me to work in his memory."

Mr Fowler co-founded the Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice group in 2020, with the view of campaigning for lessons to be learned from the pandemic.

More than 220,000 people have died in the UK with Covid-19 on the death certificate since the virus emerged in January 2020.

The memorial wall, set up by the campaign group, now stretches a distance of almost a third of a mile (500m).

"Through our hard work and through the public recognition of a memorial like this, the hope is that it will eventually become a permanent fixture," Mr Fowler said.

"I want people to look at the wall and look at what is represented, not just at all the people who died, but to think about the scale of the impact it has had.

"I think the wall has been incredible for a number of reasons, but for me the biggest one is it is a sense of stillness, tranquillity and peace."

The inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic is set to hear its first evidence in June, and will look at the response of government and other agencies, including the NHS and care sector.

"We continue to influence that inquiry. I would hope that anything we've done in our campaign isn't just about us," Mr Fowler said.

"It's about the knowledge that people are not powerless and they are capable for standing up for things that they believe in."

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