Tributes paid to elderly couple Tyrone who died with Covid-19 within hours of each other

Tributes have been paid to a Co Tyrone couple who died with Covid-19 only 12 hours apart.

Owen and Bredge Ward, both 69, died today at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

The couple, who were from Strabane, had been married for 48 years and had six children and nine grandchildren.

His son Martin said he held his father’s hand while he died while his brothers were at the funeral home with their mother.

“This is what the disease does: it can be mild or it can devastate lives,” he told the Northern Ireland BBC.

“In a matter of hours my mother, who was getting better, went downhill. Maybe it was the shock. Fast forward a week and my father was getting better and my mother was getting worse.

“She passed away yesterday, then my father, from a position that he was improving in, he just completely collapsed and a couple of hours after my mother’s death, he also passed away.”

Martin Ward, who works as a nurse in Galway, added that despite the pain relief and care from the hospital staff, his parents “completely collapsed” within a couple of hours.

“This is how it is. That is the pain and suffering that this caused to different families and the same message that we must convey is simply to take care of people, adhere to the guidelines and care about other people,” he said.

His family has asked the public to adhere to Covid-19 restrictions to prevent further spread of the virus.