Coronavirus: Walsall trust creates stone garden memorial

A hospital trust has created a memorial to the friends, families and colleagues of staff who have died during the coronavirus pandemic.

Painted stones were laid outside the A&E entrance at Walsall Manor Hospital in a socially distanced ceremony on Wednesday.

Among those remembered were the five members of staff who have so far died during the outbreak.

They include 36-year-old staff nurse Areema Nasreen.

Richard Beeken, chief executive of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, laid a stone and paid tribute to the mother-of-three.

"This memorial garden will enable us to remember the personal sacrifice made, the effort, the tears shed and of course to remember loved departed family and friends," he said.

Mr Beeken said the Black Country had had one of the highest death rates in the UK, proportionate to its population and said the area was "absolutely in the eye of that storm".

He also paid tribute to staff who had put in a "huge effort" during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak and in many cases worked long hours.

Anna Harding, trust matron for medicine, who came up with the idea, said staff had asked for some way to "remember lost loved ones".

One of the five, Areema Nasreen, 36, was described by him as a "staff nurse, sister, wife, mother, close colleague and friend".

The mother-of-three died last month at the hospital, where she had worked throughout her career, after contracting the virus.

In a carefully socially-distanced ceremony on Wednesday, staff laid decorated stones.

Anna Harding, trust matron for medicine who came up with the idea, said workers had stated they wanted to do something to either remember lost loved ones or to boost morale.

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