Patrick Grant broke down in tears during his appearance on Lauren Laverne's Desert Island Discs, sharing that his father sadly died during the pandemic.
When speaking about what inspired him to help create PPE during the pandemic, the Great British Sewing Bee star shared that it was a cause close to his heart, breaking down in tears as he spoke to Lauren.
"My dad died of Covid very early on, very unnecessarily," he began. "There was no PPE and he'd gone into hospital for a very routine operation. He caught Covid in hospital and died three days later. Totally unnecessary that he died, but there was no PPE in the hospital."
© Ken McKay/ITV/ShutterstockRecalling the lack of PPE, Patrick added: "I remember going into the hospital about a week before when he was in for this operation on his legs in March, Covid was on the rise but there was no PPE in the hospital because they didn’t have any."
The sewing oracle explained that she asked the government to allow the public to create PPE, with those in power saying it wasn't possible due to health and safety issues, leading Patrick to add: "You've all lost your minds."
The 51-year-old then fought back tears as he introduced his song of choice, Get Better by Alt J, explaining that it's a song about somebody struggling with the loss of a loved one, adding again: "I lost my dad during Covid," before speaking openly about how he holds onto parts of his dear father.
© BBC"It's little fragments of life we hold onto when we're grieving, [the song] brings back memories of my dad and it's kind of uplifting because we will get through it by hanging onto these little things allows us to treasure the memories."
Emotionally sharing that he treasures his dad's clothing, especially his ties, Patrick said: "I have his ties and he tied them so many times you can the knot only forms the knot he would wear, so you know he was holding it."
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In the end, Patrick's factory managed to make PPE, scrubs and gowns during the pandemic to help out. "I was in work 12 or 14 hours a day," adding that within 12 hours they'd made scrubs for hospitals.
We hope that helping out managed to give him some comfort during the difficult time.
