Your help is needed to build post-Covid memorial at Blackpool Victoria Hospital

The Great BTH Knit Revisited project needs knitted and crocheted rainbow coloured squares and flowers to make the structure, which will remember the disease’s victims – and serve as a show of gratitude for our NHS and key worker heroes.

Leading the campaign for the hospital is Nigel Fort, who said: “We want to get the whole community involved, just like we did with our Cloak of Poppies campaign for the 100th anniversary of the First World War. We would like this campaign to be even bigger.

“Many of our community are getting in touch with offers of help and we hope that getting involved will bring people together from a distance and in doing so give thanks to all our keyworkers and remember those who have sadly lost their lives to the virus.”

Once again, the structure will be housed in the main entrance of Blackpool Victoria Hospital and will remain a secret until the reveal date is announced once the pandemic is over. The space will be a place for community, patients and staff to come together, talk about their experiences and leave dedications for those who have died.

Because of current lockdown restrictions, the squares and flowers will need to be stored at home for now. The campaign team is working on safe ways to receive the items. Updates on this will be relayed on a dedicated web page and Facebook page, and in The Gazette.

To be part of the campaign, readers are asked to make six by six inch or 15.24cm by 15.24cm knitted or crocheted squares. Any colour of the rainbow will do. Squares can be made individually or a few can be attached together as the structure will have a patchwork effect. Flowers can be knitted or crocheted following any pattern.

Contributors are also encouraged to take photographs of their items and upload them to The Great BTH Knit Revisited Facebook page.

Nigel added: “We are aiming to create something that everyone can be proud of and be able to spend time to reconnect with the each other. It will also be a place to display dedications and messages of remembrance.