Thornton care home appeals for help with memorial garden after losing eight residents to Covid-19

And staff at Alexandra Court are appealing to the public to help by donating plants, flower pots and pieces of timber.

Altogether the home, on Victoria Road East, has lost 12 patients since the beginning of the year, four of them due to natural causes, but because of lockdown staff have only been able to attend one funeral.

The sad loss of so many in such a short time, most of them long term residents who became part of an extended family in the home, has hit everyone there hard.

So manager Mark Ratcliff, 25, resolved to create a garden of remembrance in their memory, planning to turn a storage shed into a sky blue cottage -style building, with bespoke plants to represent each resident lost.

it is also hoped to site a bench there too, so relatives and residents can sit and pay their respects.

He said: " It has been difficult, especially as everyone here is very close.

"Many of our residents have been here five or 10 years and so have many of our staff.

"We don't have any agency workers here so it isn't a place where people come and go, it is very much the residents' home and they get to know each other well.

"It has been devastating losing so many, and what has made it more difficult is not being able to attend all the funerals.

"Normally I would get to them all, but this time I could only attend one.

"Covid-19 has affected so many people across the country and it is a terrible thing.

"We do everything we can to prevent it here and it a worrying time for staff and residents.

"The remembrance garden will be a special thing, our way to remember those we have lost and pay our respects."

The home currently has 25 residents.

There are plans to hold a joint service for all the residents who have died, some time in the near future at the Christ Church on Meadows Avenue, Thornton, and it will be followed by a wake back at the home.

If anyone is able to help with any items for the memorial garden, including a bench, they can contact the home on (01253) 923471