'Believe me coronavirus is real' - Wife of Hartlepool foster carer who lost battle with virus hits back at Covid deniers as national death toll passes 100,000

Bryan Gowland, 75, sadly died on Saturday, November 28, 2020, after battling coronavirus in hospital.

The much-loved foster carer from Catcote Road spent 36 years looking after hundreds of children and young people in the town with wife June Gowland.

Bryan underwent a triple heart bypass 10 years ago but remained active right up until he became unwell with Covid-19 symptoms.

On November 7, 2020, he tested positive for Covid-19 and was taken into the University Hospital of North Tees two days later, where he was cared for until he passed away with wife June by his side.

Now as the national number of people who have died with Covid since the start of the pandemic passes the grim milestone of 100,000, Bryan’s wife, June, has said that the Government should have acted sooner to prevent so many deaths.

"I feel that a lot of people got ill because they [the Government] messed about instead of going straight in with the restrictions,” she said.

"There have been all of these deaths but all of these people needn’t have died – [it’s] because the Government wasn’t fast enough to contain it [the virus].

"I feel let down by the Government – they should have done more sooner.

“If they had acted sooner then Bryan would have still been here, along with a lot of other people.”

June said that to many people her husband’s death will just be a statistic, but urged people to realise that behind each death is a family mourning the loss of their loved one.

The 74-year-old who is mum to Michael Gowland and Lesley Burton, said: "When we were in the hospital with Bryan I said to my family; ‘you know what, your dad is just as statistic’.

"Not to the nursing staff, or to us, but to everyone else he is just another person who has died in hospital with Covid.

"But each death is another family who are grieving and who have lost someone.”

June, a retired nurse, said that even now that the death toll has reached such a tragic milestone she feels that people are not taking coronavirus seriously enough.

She said: “Bryan would have still been here if it was not for Covid.

“He had underlying health issues but they were under control and he was getting treatment for them.

"At the end of the day Covid is what took his life.”

June said she is left feeling angry that there are still some people who deny that coronavirus exists, even when families like hers have been torn apart by it.

"Some people say that it’s not real, but believe me it’s real," she said.

"I would say you go in and see them [Covid patients] and see just what it is like.

"To seem them gasping for every breath that they take is unbelievable.”

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