Reading your articles about loneliness takes me back twenty years to when I took early retirement. I was as nervous as I would be for applying for a job when I approached a relatively new group about volunteering. The rest is history.
Everyone has some skills to offer that they gained over years in the national workforce. Some skills need to be shared so they are not lost. Over time these actions have brought us success and allowed us to become self sustaining.
Our volunteers cover male, female, able and disabled, young and old. Our oldest volunteers’ family (100 years) acknowledge the contribution that volunteering has made to his well-being.
But my main point is that the lonely have an important part to play too, by showing determination to improve their lives and the lives of others by getting out there, joining in or using what is available. This way it will remain available. If they don’t sadly, what we and others offer will be pointless and disappear.
L. Green, Sheffield
