£5,000 raised by widower in memory of wife who died five days after Covid test

A widower has channelled his grief and put a focus on raising awareness of adoption, raising thousands of pounds for charity and honouring the memory of his late wife.

Harjinder Kalsi and his wife Geeta had been preparing to become adoptive parents, but Geeta sadly passed away in January at the age of 45, just five days after testing positive for Covid-19.

Despite still grieving her loss, Mr Kalsi has since the beginning of February to raise as much money as possible to help Adoption Focus, a charity working to support adoptive families.

More than £5,500 has been raised so far and the 41-year-old from Bilston said the fundraising had been a good way of making sure something positive could come out of his loss.

He said: "It has been good for me as following Geeta's death, I had no focus and no direction and I didn't know what to do with myself.

"This came to light for me after my workplace and her workplace at Tesco had raised some money and didn't want to just buy flowers, so I suggested giving it to an adoption charity.

"I thought it would get some good out of the situation and it snowballed from there, raising awareness and giving me a focus and something positive to do."

Mr Kalsi, who works as a call handler for Staffordshire Police, said that following the completion of the fundraising campaign, he would like to start a foundation in memory of his wife.

He also said that the funding would go towards training for staff and to getting the word out to Asian and minority communities about the benefits of adoption and helping children.

He said: "This was one of the main things I wanted to address with this campaign as within the Asian community, it's not really spoken about enough.

"It's hidden away and is not a subject that people feel comfortable in discussing with family and friends and, sometimes, they feel scared about what people might think.

"This is something I want to help people with and show them that there's nothing to scared or ashamed of and it's a good thing to do if you really want to be a parent."

In terms of what his wife would have thought of the fundraising appeal, Mr Kalsi say he knew she'd be very proud.

He said: "She would have thought it was fantastic as adoption was something we were both very passionate about and believed in as we wanted to be parents.

"I can't think of a better legacy to leave in her name than by raising money and awareness for the general public about adoption."

To find out more and to donate to the fundraising appeal, go to adoptionfocus.beaconforms.com/form/4fa25a1a