First Minister leads tributes at sad passing of terminally ill lockdown bride

Dear reader,

One of the most heart-rending stories of the coronavirus lockdown was that of Samantha Gamble, the terminally ill Northern Ireland woman who feared her May wedding wouldn’t take place because of the restrictions.

Samantha, from Loughbrickland, Co Down, was due to wed long-time partner Frankie Byrne in May, but feared that wouldn’t happen because of lockdown rules which prevented wedding ceremonies. However, the Stormont Executive introduced a new law that allowed them to tie the knot in a garden ceremony live streamed to close family members .

Sadly, just three months later, it was confirmed on Monday that Samantha had died, with First Minister Arlene Foster leading the tributes to her.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health statistics show that another 58 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland over the last 24 hours. This brings the number of positive tests here to 461 within the last seven days.

There have been no further deaths related to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, meaning the total deaths here related to the virus stands at 560.

Take care.

Alistair Bushe,

Editor

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