DJ and TV host Edith Bowman has lent her support to The Herald’s campaign to create a memorial garden dedicated to Scotland’s Covid victims and their families. 

Broadcaster Bowman wrote on Twitter: “This is a really special campaign by The Herald to build a Garden of Remembrance. . . Please support if 
you can”. 

The Fife broadcaster is the latest celebrity to support our campaign to remember Scotland’s coronavirus victims.

Just days after the campaign launched Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle offered his support.

The Herald’s vision is to create a garden of remembrance where people can go to remember a loved one. One idea is to have a memorial cairn with a stone representing the life of every victim.

The campaign has been offered a site in Pollok Country Park by Glasgow City Council leaders and a public fund has raised more than £20,000 towards its £50,000 target to create a fitting tribute.

Bowman posted a message on her Twitter page saying: “This is a really special campaign by The Herald to build a Garden of Remembrance to those lost to coronavirus in Scotland, with a cairn with a stone to represent every victim. Please support if you can.”

Our campaign has been taken to people’s hearts and we have received kind donations from readers including families who have lost someone to the virus.

We have also had the support of the business community. Former printing tycoon John Watson OBE generously offered £10,000 to our campaign, which more than doubled the total raised towards the £50,000 target.

The charitable Watson Foundation has helped a range of charities since Mr Watson retired as chairman and chief executive of the Glasgow-based printing dynasty John Watson and Company.

The Herald:

Mr Watson, one of Scotland’s foremost philanthropists and entrepreneurs, said: “I am deeply impressed by the willingness of The Herald to launch a campaign to create a memorial garden and provide a lasting tribute to those we have lost during this unprecedented health emergency.”

Early on in the campaign we received a £5,000 donation from Hillington-based business Harry Clarke Group of companies following the death of a close friend of one of their directors. Jim Russell, from Glasgow, died from the virus in May. 

The campaign is hoping to move to the design stage and we want to open up the conversation about how the garden is taken forward. Whether it be design experts, gardeners or families who could eventually find solace through the memorial, we would love to hear from you.

Glasgow City Urbanist Professor Brian Evans, a designer and landscape architect, joined a recent meeting of our steering group to help explore how the project could proceed. He said involving the country’s landscape architects and artists could be extremely useful.

He added: “It is a project that is tailormade for landscape architects and artists to collaborate and it would be interesting to see what designs came from their creativity. It is possible it could lead to some kind of design competition.”

Scotland was supposed to be at the centre of the climate change debate with Cop 26 in November, which has now been postponed, but I think there is a way that this project and the climate change emergency could go hand in hand.”

To donate go to: gofundme.com/ herald-garden-of-remembrance. You can also send donations via post to The Herald Garden of Remembrance Campaign, Herald & Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow, G32 8FG. If you can help email memorialgarden@theherald.co.uk