Happy to be your pay pal
Coast woman follows Japanese paid friend trend
A friend in need, is a friend indeed, but a friend with money is better.
Are you in need of a bestie for a few hours a day, with no strings attached? Then Gold Coaster Patricia Clayton may be the woman for you.
The Mudgeeraba mother is set to launch her own business charging people for friendship on an hourly basis, an idea given to her by her son after a trip to Japan.
The community care worker is planning on charging people $50 an hour to hangout, in what she has coined a ‘pro- fessional friend’, someone to go out for a coffee, a meal, or participate in an activity with.
Ms Clayton, 55, said there were a lot of lonely locals who don’t have anyone to go out with and needed a friendly ear for a chat.
“I have realised there is a need for companionship,” she said. “There’s lots of people who refuse to go out and don’t want to do things themselves and it’s not right.
“There is a need for people who need a friend and they are willing to pay for it.”
Ms Clayton has been a carer for the past 30 years and has found an incredible amount of lonely people wanting to pay her to take them out and be their friend.
“I get propositioned almost every day,” she said. “People have asked me if they could hire me privately outside work hours. But I can’t do it because that’s against my employers rules. It’s a conflict of interest.
“But I’ve been asked many times. They say ‘if you’re not working can you take me out one day and I’ll give you cash’.
“I’ve been asked over and over again … can you take my husband to the pool, or can you take him to the bowls club for a beer and I’ll pay you? And I have to say no.”
She said her son rented a friend when he was in Japan who helped him find local hot spots.
“He’s met heaps of people who do it when he was living in Japan,” she said.
“He was the one who suggested I should do it. “But this weekend I’m doing to set up a website and do it.”
She isn’t concerned about real friendship developing saying “there will be boundaries” and the only thing she said she wouldn’t be up to do is jumping off a cliff.
Mrs Clayton is in the process of setting up a website so she can advertise her services.