Covid memorial event to be held at arboretum
The fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK is due to be remembered at the National Memorial Arboretum.
Sunday's service including poetry, personal stories and music has been arranged by NHS Charities Together, a charitable organisation which supports the health service.
Among those guests attending the invite-only event will be the children's author Michael Rosen, who spent 48 days in intensive care with Covid-19, and singers Lesley Garrett and Anthonia Edwards.
The event at the site in Alrewas, Staffordshire, will take place on a national day of reflection and will also include a minute's silence.
Mr Rosen, who is best known for We're Going on a Bear Hunt, has written a new poem reflecting on the impact of Covid and he is due to read it during the service.
He said it was a time to reflect and that he was thinking of those who were in hospital with him who did not survive.
"We owe it to them and their families to remember them," he said.
Organisers said they also wanted to reflect on the sacrifices made by people in the health service and volunteers.
There will be NHS staff, patients, and bereaved families attending, along with senior healthcare representatives and MPs.
The service will feature some of their stories and there will be a reading of the poem Blessed Alder by Dan Simpson, the arboretum's former poet-in-residence.
Ellie Orton OBE, chief executive of NHS Charities Together, said its research showed a fifth of people in the UK were still processing what happened to them during the pandemic.
"With over half of the UK still grieving for someone they lost due to Covid-19, we know how much this moment to reflect is needed," she said.
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