Coronavirus: 'We lost £20k of savings for dream wedding'

Alex Clough and Claire Roche were due to say "I do" in August in front of their close friends and family

A midwife and her fiancé have lost £20,000 after their dream wedding was cancelled amid the coronavirus crisis.

Claire Roche, 26, and Alex Clough, 28, from Warrington were due to marry at a chateau in France on 1 August.

But the couple were left heartbroken when their wedding was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They were then dealt another blow when they discovered their insurance would not cover their losses, destroying their dreams of the perfect day.

"Not only have we lost the weekend and the wedding of a lifetime, we have lost money we spent years saving," said Claire.

It has been a difficult time for the couple as Claire has been working extra shifts at Wythenshawe Hospital, Greater Manchester, to cover sickness and colleagues who have been shielding.

She has regularly cared for women who have tested positive for Covid-19 and contracted the virus herself.

The couple have both been working throughout the pandemic

"It's been challenging," said Claire. "There has been a lot of additional pressures but the morale and the camaraderie in the NHS has been amazing.

"My colleagues have been fantastic and we all have just supported each other through it all."

The couple met while Claire was studying at the University of Manchester in 2014 and fell in love the following year.

"Since then we have been together pretty much every day," she said.

In March 2019, Alex proposed and the couple booked a wedding for 48 guests in the south of France.

But earlier this year, their plans started to unravel and the wedding they had "dreamt of was at risk of falling apart at the seams".

Claire Roche and Alex Clough started dating in 2015

With their flights cancelled and the risk to their guests' health, the couple were left with no option but to cancel the wedding and lose thousands of pounds in the process.

"Our big day had gone and that really was devastating for us but we were also letting 48 guests down at the same time," said Alex, who is a team leader at a chemicals plant in Ellesmere Port and has also been working extra hours amid the global health crisis.

The weeks that followed were a "nightmare" for the couple after the venue owner refused to offer a refund and the news from their insurers that they were not covered for a global pandemic.

"We felt awful for everyone and terribly disappointed for ourselves. We are not going to be able to fund anything like this again," added Claire.

The couple are now hoping to win a competition for a free wedding for key workers at Chateau Challain in France.

"It would be absolutely unreal to give Claire the wedding that she deserves. It would be out of this world," said Alex.