KELLY ILES - Mrs Iles has asked people to contact her via social media to add the names of loved ones


Coronavirus pandemic

A business owner who lost her father to Covid-19 is creating an art work featuring yellow hearts in memory of people killed by the "cruel virus".

Kelly Iles is creating the work in the windows of Enchanted in the Royal Priors shopping centre, Leamington Spa.

More than 100 people have so far asked for their loved ones' names to be included, Mrs Iles said.

She wanted to do "something positive" to remember her father Ricky Perkins who died last month, aged 65.

'My hero'

He died in hospital on 19 January, when a peak of 1,820 UK deaths from Covid were recorded.

"I have to do positive things to remember him, I don't want it to be all consumed by sadness," she said.

Mrs Iles hopes to put hundreds of hearts in the large windows of the premises, one of two themed events venues she runs.

"I don't want all these people to be forgotten," she said.

"I have had hundreds of daughters reach out to be who have lost their dad. I've got three Facebook friends who actually lost a parent on the same day as me."

She has joined an online support group for bereaved relatives and got the art idea from pictures of yellow heart installations in New York.

Mrs Iles has appealed for anyone who wants a loved one included to contact her via social media.

Her art work includes dedications to people in their 30s and 40s and she hoped it would "raise awareness" that many younger people had died.

Mrs Iles was close to her father who ran a metal fabrications business and described him as "my hero".

"He was very hardworking," she said. "He helped me with my business and I went to him for everything."

Her business was among those which donated meals to NHS staff last year.

She is also working with another firm to take boxes of beauty products to nurses helping Covid patients at Warwick Hospital in Mr Perkins' memory over the weekend.

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