RETIRED teacher Audrey Smith has been one of the many people to get in touch following our Herald memorial garden campaign launch.

Ms Smith has offered to help and has had some experience in creating a community garden.

She said: "I am keen to get involved if I can help. I am an about to become retired biology teacher and I also teach horticulture so I do know about gardening and working with others. I also helped to design a garden at my school.

"I feel this garden firstly should celebrate lives lost and seeing the names of these people in the garden somehow will provide great solace for their families in the years to come .This should form the central piece of the garden.

"Rainbows will forever be linked to this crisis and I feel they need to be represented in some permanent way in the garden not just in the planting."

Read more: First Minister shows support for Herald memorial garden campaign

Ms Smith say it needs to be designed to give areas with enough privacy for grieving families to contemplate without feeling watched.

She added: "It also needs to be big enough to give families space and maybe even areas where people could sit on the grass and have a picnic so that children could visit and not see this place not just as a place of sadness but also of the celebration of lives.

"It has to represent all parts of Scotland so perhaps local gardening groups could be involved in designing their own areas maybe incorporating the requests of bereaved families who may know of specific plants their loved ones would want to be included."

Read more: Herald campaign: Creating a place to remember Scotland's coronavirus victims

Jeremy Hamilton, who created a Clyde Crematorium, in Dalry, North Ayrshire, said he thought the memorial was an "important and excellent idea."

Mr Hamilton said: "A few years ago, following a series of life changing events, I decided to build a crematorium to better look after families at a time of grief: a more modern and approachable facility that better reflects contemporary society – lighter, brighter, more caring, less heavy and intimidating and crucially ensuring more time and space to grieve.

"We are incredibly proud of what we have created at the Clyde Coast & Garnock Valley Crematorium. As someone with absolutely no previous background in funeral care, I have learnt a great deal, in a very short time, about bereavement and the grieving process, and I know a memorial place, a space to go to, would be an incredibly powerful thing for those who have lost loved ones as a result of Covid-19.

"We too have been thinking along similar lines – and we recently announced an initiative, in partnership with a local social enterprise, that will see us plant a tree sapling within our grounds on behalf of very family we have assisted since May 1. We are preparing to plant our first 140 saplings in the first week of June, for all the families who came to us for assistance during the month of May."

Can you help? Send us your thoughts or comments to memorialgarden@theherald.co.uk