Family’s wait for answers after worker’s death

THE family of a worker at Amazon’s Swansea warehouse who died in hospital after collapsing during his shift have described their two-year battle to find out the truth about what happened to him.

- ROBERT DALLING

Martin Vaughan, 52, of Water Street in Neath, collapsed at the Ffordd Amazon site off Fabian Way on September 20, 2023, and died the following day in Morriston Hospital.

An inquest has now ruled that he died due to heart problems.

A former pupil of Cefn Hengoed School, he had two children, twins Rhys and Caitlin, and maintained a good relationship with his former partner Claire Williams.

Mr Vaughan worked for UPS before taking a warehouse job at Amazon, where he had worked for around seven years.

Ms Williams said he enjoyed the work as it suited his lifestyle, and allowed him to spend more time walking with his husky Lola.

“We'd spoken to Martin at around teatime,’ she said.

“Our daughter had found out she was pregnant two days before. He was doing overtime, and I said to him, ‘You'd best do overtime, because the pram that she’s going to want is going to be expensive’

“We were laughing and joking about that, and he was like, ‘Don’t tell me; I know; I know’

“At that point he was absolutely fine, and I'd seen him the day before and he seemed normal to me.

“In the evening someone tried contacting our daughter on Facebook to say ‘Your dad is unwell’ and that he had been taken to Morriston Hospital. The next thing I know, Morriston Hospital had called Caitlin and said that she needed to come, and to bring the family with her!”

Caitlin, who was in Merthyr, called Ms Williams to relay the news, and she and Rhys made their way to the hospital as quickly as they could.