A survivor named Dave Roland who was famously pictured sitting on the Leppings Lane terrace located at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield with his head buried in his hands after a horrific loss of life in 1989 has now been reported to have died of the coronavirus.
The heartbreaking scene followed a crush that killed 96 innocent men, women, and even children. This 65 year old passed away days before the 31st anniversary of this tragedy.
The great tragedy of Leppings Lane
Mr. Dave Roland had been known to have lived in Woolton, southeast Liverpool, but traveled to Sheffield when he was 34 to watch the FA Cup semi-finals between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. After being able to escape the Leppings Lane crush, Roland, along with his friend John Owen tried to help victim Henry Rogers after seeing him battle for his life on the Hillsborough pitch. Sadly, the 17 year old did not live.
Mr. Roland has previously given a statement saying "I always remember the blazing sunshine shining down on him, so John had him in his arms and I had hold of his hand... He just went lifeless and we got pulled away." When he was still alive. After seeing Henry's picture in the Liverpool ECHO, Mr. Roland as well as Mr. Owen were able to trace his parents and visited them. Both survivors attended Henry's funeral.
Ms. Hopwood stated that the tragedy had a huge impact on her father, who has separated from his wife Christine two years after the incident, although they both remained friends up to her death last year.
Who is Dave Roland?
Mr. Roland was actually born in Toxteth, often denied that it was him in these harrowing image of being a survivor sitting alone with his head buried in his hands on the afternoon of April 15, 1989. His family may have even believed that the picture brought up too many painful memories of the incident.
When Mr. Roland moved home and found the exact jacket he was wearing, Ms. Hopwood said that it would open up some old wounds. According to her, the disaster changed a huge part of his life.
Despite the impact of the picture, Mr. Roland's love of music, football, his city, and also his family were able to help him find fun and joy in the world and even bring it to those who he had met. Although fit and healthy when the pandemic started to spread, Ms. Hopwoon believes that he walked around with a false sense of "invincibility" though he wore a mask and gloves as was adviced.
It is currently believed that he actually caught the condition right before society was placed on Lockdown. According to Ms. Hopwoon, he had actually been displaying no symptoms aside from tiredness right until his collapse. He was then rushed to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital but was not able to survive.
