Former Oakdale miners and their families said their farewells to Baroness Thatcher by holding a reunion on the same day as her funeral last week.
During the strike of 1984/85, the miners and their families relied upon local donations of food parcels. During last week’s reunion, held at Oakdale RFC, the former miners brought in their own food parcels to donate to a local food bank.
Organiser Chris Thomas, a former miner at Oakdale colliery said: “This was a more fitting way to note the passing of Mrs Thatcher than splashing out around £10 million of our money on her funeral.”
Mr Thomas thanked the community of Oakdale for their generosity and for turning out to say their own personal farewells to the former Prime Minister. He added that her policies put tens of thousands of workers from across the Valley out of work – a legacy many parts of the country were still suffering from.