Coronavirus: Lorry driver has been living in his cab for five weeks to protect his wife and children
Ben McKeown's main form of contact with his children for the last five weeks has been in a daily video call.
Friday 24 April 2020 06:43, UK
Sacrifice is an almost universal symptom of these coronavirus times.
Across the country, almost everyone is making sacrifices in one way or another.
But sitting on a rocky bank beside an industrial estate in Oswestry in Shropshire, with the occasional interruption of a car horn or growling engine, it's clear that Ben McKeown's sacrifice is more profound than most.
For the last five weeks, the lorry driver from Carmarthenshire in Wales has been effectively working and living in a cab barely two metres wide.
His only contact with his three young children is a daily video call and a brief glimpse of them through a window when he returns home to drop off a bag of laundry.
"I saw my partner Nicola but we made sure to keep the two-metre distance," Mr McKeown says. "It's a safety thing."
The decision was taken by Mr McKeown and his partner out of fear that he would bring the coronavirus home after doing long-distance deliveries. Their youngest son was born 10 weeks premature and is just three months old.
"We made a joint decision that it just wasn't worth the possibility of me infecting Nicola or the kids so we decided I'll live in the cab," he says.
He has had a couple of nights' respite in a family friend's caravan but otherwise has slept in the cab throughout the tumultuous time since lockdown.
Mr McKeown says he is lucky to have a boss who is very supportive of him and he has made the high-end lorry cab his own.
It is impeccably clean - he is polishing the bumper at the front when I arrive - and inside are many nods to his home, including a duvet with the Welsh dragon and a cushion saying: "Daddy, you're number one!"
:: Listen to the Daily podcast on , , ,
Mr McKeown, a motoring fanatic who grew up wanting to drive lorries, is used to extended periods of time on the road.
Like many drivers, he sometimes spends six nights a week away from home, but never imagined he would be in this situation.
"I never signed up for this," he says. "But I'll do whatever it takes to keep my family safe. I'd go years if I have to."
But is there a feeling of intense loneliness?
"Oh yeah," he says, "when you're alone at night your mind starts to wander and you just miss home. You feel homesick. You're thinking 'I've missed this, I've missed that'. It's really hard.
"I've missed my eldest riding her bike without stabilisers for the first time and my little one taking her first steps but I already have a really strong bond with them so I know it'll be fine when I get back, I'll be winding them up again.
"As a long-distance driver, in a way I knew what I was getting into in terms of missing things," he adds. "But you hope you can make up for that."
Mr McKeown is not seeking sympathy but would like an improved awareness of the sacrifices all delivery drivers, as key workers, are making.
"I have had people being so kind to me but others I think don't realise where their food comes from and how it gets there," he says.
"I hope in the future there might be better conditions for lorry drivers anyway because at the moment the showers in the services are expensive and dirty even though we're doing an essential job."
He has witnessed, in the early days and weeks of lockdown, things he never thought he would in this country.
"I was pulling up and before we'd even unloaded people were coming over and asking me 'What's this? What's that?'. I've never seen it before, sheer desperation for basic necessities."
Mr McKeown hopes to return home once the most severe lockdown restrictions are lifted but will only do so once it is safe.
He also recognises the difficult but essential work his partner is doing at their family home.
"I don't know how she does it with three young kids, it's definitely very hard for her and I'm so, so proud of what she's doing," he says.
When he does eventually get home, there are no grand plans; a return to normality is the only thing Mr McKeown craves.
"I just want to see my kids again, to take them to the park, you don't realise how much family means to you until you're not with them."