'Caring was who she was': Tributes after death of refugees' helper, 42, from Covid

Sarah Cooper, 42, was also renowned on the Midlands music scene as Lady Coopz, and the airwaves have been filled with songs and shows dedicated to her

Originally from Derby, Sarah moved to Willenhall and worked as a community psychiatric nurse before working for the Wolverhampton Refugee and Migrant Centre where she helped ensure the "City of Sanctuary" lived up to its name.

Refugees beginning a new life in the Black Country are faced with countless challenges including finding new friends, understanding the benefits system, registering with doctors and other agencies, all while dealing with trauma from the life they escaped and trying to ensure their mental health does not deteriorate.

Staff at the Refugee and Migrant Centre are distraught at the loss of their colleague.

The centre's health and wellbeing manager, Mandy Mackereth, told the Express & Star: "Sarah was my 'go to' person - I do not want to imagine life in this office without her.

"She was just special. You could talk to her about anything and I've shared things with her I've never been able to tell anyone else. She has helped me so much.

"She was so caring - caring was not something she did, it was an essential part of who she was. Sarah was an amazing soul, full of joy her aura lit the room up!"

Another colleague said: "What an amazing, kind, caring person she was. She was loved by the staff and service-users alike. She was completely professional, but 100 per cent warm and human at the same time."

"She had an instinct for when things were not quite right with someone, and she made it her business to go out of her way to help that person, but always with great sensitivity, and without prying.

"I'm sure that's part of what made her such a wonderful nurse; caring about other people was part and parcel of her nature. It wasn't what she did, it was who she was."

Another remembered: "Sarah was the sort who struggled to leave her work behind at the end of the day - she cared deeply about the vulnerable people she was helping so much at the Refugee and Migrant Centre."

"If someone was homeless, she would be worrying about them at night, or if a person was facing multiple issues, Sarah would champion for them in every area, even when it was not required by her role.

"At the same time she was always professional with great attention to detail, a real credit to her nursing profession."

The father of Sarah's twins Peter Winson said: "It is hard to put into one sentence what an amazing and caring woman she was, she always thought of others before herself."

Her daughter Laila added: "She was an incredible woman. Loving, friendly, kind. She would go to the ends of the earth to help others and spent her working life as a psychiatrist nurse for the NHS. As said by almost everyone who ever met her, she was the type of person you’d never forget due to the extent of her kindness. The type of woman I aspire to be."

Sarah loved music, attending gigs and DJing at events across the Midlands as Lady Coopz.

Online radio station ReggaeSpace dedicated an entire show to her memory on the Sunday after she died in Walsall Manor Hospital.

DJ Swainy Roots said: "Our Sunday lunch set was in tribute to my friend Lady Coopz, roots, reggae and lovers rock, fly high my friend."