Charity’s urgent appeal for Retford volunteers

Contact the Elderly is urging people to spare a few hours each month to help with the running of local tea parties for the elderly.

The charity aims to relieve the acute loneliness of isolated older people, aged 75 and above, who live alone, by organising free monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people within local communities – providing a regular and vital friendship link every month.

Each older guest is collected from their home by a volunteer driver, and is taken to a volunteer host’s home, where they join a small group for tea, chat and companionship.

The charity is hoping to set up a new group in Retford, however, it is currently struggling to recruit volunteer drivers who are able to pick up the older guests from their homes and accompany them to the gathering each month and volunteer hosts to welcome the group into their homes for tea twice a year.

Contact the Elderly’s Midlands development officer Pamela Walker, said: “The charity is committed to offering a lifeline of friendship to the oldest and loneliest people, but our hopes of extending this lifeline to even more elderly people in Retford are currently fading due to a real shortage of volunteers in the area.”

Retford volunteer group coordinator Susan Collins, who is helping to set up the new group, added: “It would be lovely to get this new group up and running in Retford so that we can provide some happiness and outings for people who may well otherwise be on their own much of the time. Also, the volunteers will have the chance to make friends and enjoy themselves too.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for Contact the Elderly once a month as a driver, or twice a year as a host, can contact Pamela Walker on 0121 603 1331 or email [email protected].