Covid: "It's tearing me apart thinking he would have been safer at home"

Sian Roberts husband George was a father of three and grandfather - he had been a miner before the closure of the South Wales pits. He then became the club secretary of Penrhiwceiber Constitutional Club where he worked until his retirement. George was a well known and much respected member of the local community. He was known for his superb quick wit and quiet strong presence. He was the rock at the centre of his family's world.

Sian told us his death has left an irreplaceable hole saying: "He was well known, everybody knew him because he grew up in the area . He was well liked and respected. A big part of the community. He was just lovely."

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Sian and George met when she was 19 and they had been inseparable ever since. Until George's hospitalisation in October 2020 they had never spent any more than 5 days apart from one another.

They were extra vigilant throughout the pandemic, Sian's sister Angie Jones told us: "Sian was completely over the top about their cleanliness and their hygiene. He hadn't stepped outside. Sian was extreme. I used to think because she would have the shopping delivered by her son Richard and everything would be taken out and disinfected before it even came in the house. Everything, even tins because it was so important to keep George safe."

George was admitted to hospital after suffering a suspected heart attack. Sian told us he was desperately afraid of catching Covid and dying. "He didn't want to stay in there. He was terrified he wanted to come home and he said he would be safer at home than in there. Yeah, he was very upset over it. Every time I spoke to him I'd tell him to try and calm down. You are going to make yourself worse, if you are going to get yourself worked up. He was frightened and everything he worried about became reality. From the day he tested positive, he survived just five days. What was worse was that he knew he'd been handed the death sentence he'd been so terrified of."

Sian's sister Angie Jones is supporting her in her bid to lobby the First Minister for a Wales-specific inquiry - they are members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group. Today a number of relatives will once again meet with Mark Drakeford. He is supporting a UK-wide investigation. But Angie does not feel it will give them the answers they seek. "Well, there's only one thing we want really, because we've got to take our own issue up with health authority in question. But for Mark Drakeford, we want a Wales-specific Welsh inquiry with everything that's come out recently about Boris Johnson's government and the way in which they were dealing with things.

"How can anybody put their faith and trust in this government? I think we must have a Wales-specific inquiry. It must look at what happened here in Wales. We have a devolved government and I think that we need to have that Welsh inquiry separate from the UK-wide investigation. Scotland has it. So why aren't we?"

The stress of the situation has taken a devastating toll on Sian and George's children. Each of their experiences of loss is different but their grief is just as immense. Sian does not sleep, reliving her life with George night after night. Sian told us that although friends and family have been supportive and kind, inviting her to their homes to avoid her being on her own, being amongst their families just makes her own deep sense of loneliness more acute - highlighting what she has lost. Sister Angie is worried about her saying "I know she has said many times that she just doesn't want to go on. And I mean as a sister you think 'Oh my God' that's the worst thing that can happen but I completely understand why and how she feels that is the only way to mend how broken she is."

"It has been the most horrific of experiences- we want answers. We want an acknowledgement that what happened to George and so many like him here in Wales should never have been allowed to happen - his death was in our view completely avoidable had things been done differently."