'Since Lauren’s death… Christmas will never be the same again'
A South Wales father whose daughter died from Covid-19 in December last year is dreading the festivities without her.
Last updated 26th Nov 2021
Christmas was 25-year-old Lauren Jones’ favourite time of the year. Her dad Paul said: “Around this time last year, Lauren helped me put the decorations up at home, but I'm just not looking forward to putting them up. I don't know how I'm going to feel really."
Lauren tested positive for Coronavirus on the 23rd of December 2020. On the 27th she was struggling to breathe. "She was coughing mainly, but she wasn't coughing a lot. She was kind of struggling to catch her breath and said 'I think I better go to the hospital, to get checked.' So, I drove her."
Paul told us: “I booked her in, she walked in through the doors of A and E and that was the last time I actually spoke to her in person. I had a message off her the following day when I asked if she was OK. She said, ‘I'm doing fine, the oxygen seems to be helping me.’ But then, two days later, she just seemed to go downhill and had to be intubated. Eight hours later they rang us to say she wouldn't survive the night - absolutely heart breaking.
“I think based on the fact that she was so young we had the privilege of being able to be with her. I know many families were not able to be, and I feel so sad and sorry for them. It is no consolation when you've got to switch off your young daughter’s life support machine. I think about it every day. I have nightmares about it every day. They will never go away.”
Lauren who was from Llwynypia had no underlying health conditions when she contracted the virus. Her dad Paul and mum Karen had tested positive first, as her parents recovered from the virus – Lauren’s condition deteriorated.
Paul said: “It's devastating for all of us. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. Heartbreaking, devastating. Those are the two words I have used a lot since we lost Lauren last year, you know, and that's just not just for myself and my wife, for literally all the family. Even the community where we live, work colleagues - they're all devastated by Lauren’s loss, because of the person she was. Outgoing, friendly with everybody - a heart of gold. She loved life, it just should never have happened.”
You can listen to interview by clicking Audio Boom link via Twitter post below.
Paul told us he often finds himself wondering "if the lockdown had been extended, the firebreak made longer, if measures had been kept in place until the vaccination rollout – would Lauren still be here?'" He feels things could have been handled differently in Wales to slow the spread of the virus. Paul is seeking answers and has joined the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group. They are calling for a Wales-specific inquiry into how the pandemic has been handled by the Welsh Government. First Minister Mark Drakeford supports a UK-wide inquiry. He will meet with families from the group for a second time next week.
There isn’t a day that passes that Paul and Karen don’t think about Lauren. He told us: “We have got some absolutely fantastic memories in her 25 years , like Lauren loved travelling. We've been on many holidays, long haul and short haul, pretty much since Lauren was two years old. When she finished school she started work in the local doctors surgery, where my wife works and loved working there. She got to know all the patients and they knew her because of the type of person she was. She worked for Avon and Body Shop as well, which she delivered around the street here to people in this community, friends and family.
“She was months away from finishing her degree. They awarded it posthumously, which we've been really grateful for. We've got a certificate framed in the house now. It will be a privilege again for us to collect that in an Open University ceremony next year. But it's not the same, she should be here.”