Five years on from his dad's death, Jamie Mawson recalls the match that never should have taken place and how it tore a hole in his family
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Richard Mawson with his wife Mary
Richard Mawson with his wife Mary
Richard Mawson was a lifelong Liverpool fan. He spent 63 years going to watch his club but sadly there will be two games that - for tragic reasons - his family will always remember.
Richard was at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on April 15 1989 when disaster unfolded. He was there with his son Jamie, who was just 16 at the time, as they watched on in horror as fellow Liverpool fans were crushed to death in the pens beneath them. They tried their best to help whoever they could.
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Jamie, now 53, recalls: "We were in the stand above the Leppings Lane. Those scenes will live with me forever. It was just horrendous seeing people dying in front of me. I remember my dad hugging me, the two of us were crying into each other’s arms."
Just shy of 31-years-later and another Liverpool match would bring further tragedy to Richard and his family. At the age of 70, the former train driver made his way to Anfield to watch his beloved Reds take on Spanish side Atletico Madrid. As he made the journey from his home in Kirkdale through Stanley Park he was nervous, he wasn't sure if he should be going to the game at all.
The Champions League match took place on March 11 2020 amid the spread of Covid-19 across Europe. In Madrid, Atletico fans were unable to attend home games because of the huge number of cases of the deadly virus there. But nearly 3,000 of those fans were allowed to travel to Liverpool as the Anfield fixture went ahead.
"It was a very confusing time," recalls Jamie. "I remember leading up to the game, like the week before, the situation in Italy and Spain was bad. I was on the phone to my dad a couple of times a day talking about whether we should go. Madrid was probably the worst affected place in Spain and Atletico Madrid were playing behind closed doors. But then nearly 3,000 of their fans came over to Liverpool for this match."
An Atletico Madrid fan wearing a protective mask in the stands on March 11 2020
An Atletico Madrid fan wearing a protective mask in the stands on March 11 2020
(Image: PA)
Richard went along and watched the Reds succumb to a 2-3 defeat to dump them out of the Champions League - a results that would become trivial with the tragedy that was to follow. It would be the last game played in the country for months as the horror of the pandemic set in for the country.
For Richard and his family, the decision to allow the match to go ahead would have the darkest of consequences. "It was about a week afterwards that he started feeling unwell," says Jamie, who lives in Sefton. "He thought it was flu symptoms, but obviously he wasn’t allowed to go and see a doctor. He progressively got worse to the point where he was really struggling to get his breath."
One night, things got so bad that Mary - Richard's wife of 50 years - rang for an ambulance. "I remember my mum said she gave him a ten pound note, because she couldn’t go with him, so he could get a taxi back home afterwards," recalls Jamie. "She watched him from the window walking into the ambulance with the oxygen tank on. My mum was looking at him through the window, just crying. It is heart-breaking to think that is the last time she saw him in person. She never could have imagined she wouldn’t see him again."
When Richard, who otherwise had been fit and healthy for his age, arrived in hospital he was instantly diagnosed with Covid-19. His breathing was so difficult he was immediately put onto a ventilator that he would never return from. "I remember calling him on a Friday and he could hardly talk," says Jamie. "I was telling him he would be fine and would be out next week. His last words to me were ‘I’ve got to go, I can’t breathe.’"
As if it wasn't harrowing enough to lose their husband and father, Jamie and Mary had the added pain of not being able to visit Richard in Aintree Hospital in his final days because of the restrictions imposed as the pandemic set in. Jamie remembers calling the hospital every day for updates. "I knew it was bad because all they could say was that he was comfortable."
Then one day he got a call he will never forget. "The consultant basically said there was nothing more they could do for him and they were going to have to turn the ventilator off," says Jamie with a deep sigh. The doctor then handed the video call to a nurse who would let the family see Richard as he passed away. Jamie asked the nurse to hold his dad's hand as he died because he and his mum couldn't be there to do it. "That was the darkest of moments," he recalls. "The screams in our house were unmerciful. I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy."
Five years on from when the pandemic and the first lockdown arrived in the UK, Jamie is still angry about the decision to let that match go ahead. Scientific estimates suggested that 37 additional people died unnecessarily because of the decision to go ahead with the game, with Richard Mawson's family convinced he was one of them.
Lifelong Liverpool fan and family man Richard Mawson died of coronavirus weeks after attending Liverpool's controversial match with Atletico Madrid on March 11
Lifelong Liverpool fan and family man Richard Mawson died of coronavirus weeks after attending Liverpool's controversial match with Atletico Madrid on March 11
Jamie is now part of the Covid Bereaved Families Justice Group, which has been represented at the pandemic inquiry. The 53-year-old says the most important thing now is to make sure others don't go through what his family faced in the future.
"We all know there was a lack of preparedness and obviously the decision making as well. I don’t want another generation to go through what us and thousands and thousands of other families have gone through," he states. "
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"If anything like that comes up in the future, we need to be prepared, we need the government to be fully prepared now. We have gone through the worst of the worst. Those lives were lost because of the lack of preparedness and the decisions that were made."
Five years on from his dad's death, Jamie continues to remember him as the life-loving family man who meant so much to so many people. "He was just a really kind, caring and funny person. He loved life, he loved his family and he loved Liverpool FC."
As the Reds closed in on what now feels like an inevitable Premier League title this season, Jamie won't be able to celebrate with his dad but feels he will be watching on approvingly. "Oh he will be there in spirit," he says. "He will be looking down and cheering the lads on."