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Imagine realising one day that all your friends and family have gone from your life. As we get older, our social circles diminish, and we find ourselves with fewer and fewer people to turn to. Loneliness can be cruel, and it affects millions of people over 75 who live in social isolation. It can be as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Re-engage is making life less lonely for thousands of older people every year who tell us that our volunteer-led services make them feel valued, happier, and more able to trust others.

Our tea parties are monthly social groups open to people aged 75 and over offering regular afternoons of conversation and laughter with friends of all ages. They give lonely older people something to look forward to every month.

Call companions is our telephone befriending service ensuring isolated older people stay connected to the outside world. Call companions is available to anyone aged 75 and over who鈥檇 like a regular chat over the phone with a friendly volunteer. And rainbow call companions for LGBTQ+ older people is a lifeline for older people who have faced a lifetime of discrimination.

Our activity groups give people 75 and over the chance to do gentle exercise as they make connections with other people. Our activity groups in Wales, West Yorkshire, Birmingham, and the South West take place both face to face and online.聽All our services are free to older people.聽Together, with your help, we can ensure that older people who may have felt very alone, feel valued as individuals, continue to form friendships, and have groups that give support.聽

I am so pleased to be telling you about the remarkable work of Re-engage.聽
As a Re-engage volunteer myself, I have seen first-hand the devastating impact that loneliness and social isolation can have on an older person.聽 Being lonely is not only miserable, but it can also have a very damaging effect on physical health and take a huge emotional toll.

Through their social groups and networks, Re-engage brings generations together to make older people feel less alone. Attending a Re-engage monthly tea party is often the only social contact that an older person has with the outside world.聽 Receiving a regular phone call from a friendly volunteer call companion helps an older person feel seen and heard. And Re-engage activity groups give older people a chance to take gentle exercise and make friends at the same time.

With an ageing population Re-engage needs your help more than ever.

87- year- old 鈥楧yed in the wool Geordie鈥� Jane, grew up near Newcastle United鈥檚 football ground and was married to husband, John for 63 years until he died eight years ago. In his later life John suffered from dementia and Jane cared for him full-time.

A busy mother and former teacher, Jane missed having social meet ups in her later years but found huge enjoyment from attending Re-engage's monthly tea parties.

Jane has been a regular guest at Re-engage鈥檚 Newcastle tea parties for three years and can鈥檛 praise them enough: 鈥淭hey are hugely important to me because I can put the date in my diary and it鈥檚 something to look forward to.聽The food is always very nice but the essential ingredient is the social contact.鈥�

Kelly 46, joined our army of call companions when the pandemic closed all social gatherings. Having been a tea party host since 2018 she wanted to continue volunteering and helping someone whose isolation would have worsened during the lockdown.

And so she was paired to make calls with 91-year-old Charles whose wife of nearly seven decades had died in 2020.

Kelly, an apprenticeship manager, who is married to Tony and has a teenage son and daughter, as well as her 76-year-old mum, Yvonne at home in Newcastle said: 鈥淚 can be very busy but also have a bit of time on my hands so I wanted to continue doing something useful. I absolutely love making the phone calls to Charles. it鈥檚 lovely to know I am able to put a smile on his face and brighten up his day.鈥�

Former journalist Charles is 91, a great grandfather of five and even though he has an extended family he gets desperately lonely since losing his wife of 61 years in 2020.

鈥淢y family are wonderful and always keep in touch but when I鈥檓 alone at home it鈥檚 deadly for me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 love to be around people and talking to them. That鈥檚 how my whole life has been and to be cut off from that is awful. That鈥檚 why the calls from Kelly are so important to me.

Charles speaks with call companion Kelly once a week and having a familiar, friendly voice at the end of the phone has given him something to look forward to.聽鈥淲e are completely relaxed together. She always calls on the dot and we talk for about half an hour. There鈥檚 a nice personal touch and I think the service is exceptional.鈥�

Ginny, 77, was hospitalized for a month with a severe bout of Covid 19 during the pandemic.聽Having had two knee replacements previously, her mobility was already poor but was made exceptionally worse by this drastic ill-health.

When finally allowed to go home, Ginny was given an exercise regimen to ease her back into home life but felt she needed a little encouragement to help her, which is why she joined the Re-engage activity group in Cardiff.

鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to get motivated to do exercises by yourself at home,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why the sessions are so good. I do very gentle chair yoga in a relaxed atmosphere with friendly people. It鈥檚 perfect for me.鈥�