Wrexham councillor whose entire immediate family caught coronavirus tells of ‘absolutely devastating’ impact

A Wrexham councillor whose entire immediate family fell ill with the coronavirus has spoken out about the “absolutely devastating” impact it had on them.

Marc Jones, who represents the Grosvenor ward, said his wife and two sons began experiencing symptoms including a cough, temperature and shortness of breath towards the end of March.

As his wife works as a nurse and his two boys in supermarkets, they were able to be tested and it was confirmed that they had contracted COVID-19.

To make matter worse, the Plaid Cymru politician caught it a week later, meaning the household became reliant on a network of volunteers he had previously set up to help others hit by the pandemic to get essentials

Cllr Jones has now opened up about his family’s battle with the potentially deadly virus, which nearly resulted in his wife being admitted to hospital.

Speaking in an interview with his colleague Cllr Carrie Harper, which was carried out on the Zoom video platform, he said:  “They had a cough, temperature, shortness of breath, loss of taste, the usual symptoms I think a lot of people have had.

“I thought I had dodged it but went down a week later and to be honest it’s just left us wiped out, just March / April was completely wiped out. We’re just now starting to get back to normal.

“I’m surprised how few people seem to have experienced it or know people who have got it. Since I’ve been getting back on my feet and I think it just hasn’t happened for a lot of people.

“Until it happens to you, you don’t realise it’s not just the flu, it’s absolutely devastating.

“We were quite lucky, we had fairly mild symptoms, but it’s still knocked us for six.”

“It’s ironic that we set up a network of volunteers locally and we ended up having to rely on that network of volunteers.

“I can’t thank people enough – friends, volunteers and neighbours who shopped for us, went for prescriptions and basically looked after us in a way I was expecting to be helping other people.

“It’s at times like that you really realise the importance of that network to help people along.”

There has been some debate during the last week over the different approaches taken by the UK and Welsh governments in easing lockdown restrictions.

However, Cllr Jones said he believed the Cardiff administration had taken the right steps by only easing the regulations slightly.

He has also urged people not to become complacent in protecting themselves against the virus.

He said: “We did have some scary moments, I thought my wife would need to be admitted at one stage but luckily not.
“I guess the message is don’t take it for granted that everything’s getting better.

“I think the figures I’ve seen from the Office for National Statistics show that actually in parts of north Wales and the peak is yet to come and that we’ve got to be really careful and that’s why I think the decision to keep the lockdown, to ease it slightly but keep the lockdown is the right decision.

“There are people still dying locally and there are people still being admitted to ICU, but there’s also people who are really badly hit by all this and we don’t want that to happen to anyone.”

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)