Craig: I was given a reason to get better

LONELINESS BLIGHTING THE LIVES OF TOO MANY OLDER PEOPLE SAYS CHARITY

A LARGE proportion of Coventry’s elderly population are likely to be suffering from loneliness as it is revealed almost half of them live alone.

There are an estimated 6,327 people aged 80 or over living alone in the city and 4,650 of whom are women – almost three quarters.

The NHS say that loneliness and social isolation is a particular problem for older people living in this country – and it can lead to depression and a serious decline in physical health and wellbeing.

According to charity Age UK, hundreds of thousands of older people across the country have not had a conversation with friends or family for a month, while 3.9 million older people agree the television is their main form of company.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said: “Loneliness is certainly not inevitable in later life but it remains a widespread issue that blights the lives of far too many older people.

“People’s social networks often shrink due to life-changing CRAIG Charles has said he was “lucky” that Coronation Street bosses stood by him after it emerged he was taking drugs.

Charles, 53, who played cheeky cabbie Lloyd Mullaney on the ITV soap, events such as retirement and bereavement which can increase the risk of feeling lonely.“Our own research has shown that household size is one of the risk factors that make older people more likely to be lonely, as well as age, gender, health condition and disability, and marital status.”

Elderly women are much more likely to be living alone than elderly men, which is likely due to the fact that women tend to live longer than men. A woman born in Coventry over the last few years can expect to live to around 82 years old on average, while men will typically only make it to 79. The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show that 47% of all people over-80 in Coventry live alone.

Around 40,148 people aged 16 and over are estimated to be living alone in the area, which works out at one in every six adults. The elderly are therefor three times more likely to live alone than adults in general.

Figures in the rest of the West Midlands are similar with 46% of Birmingham’s elderly population living alone.

Nationally, 45% of people aged 80 and over are living by themselves. was suspended after photos showed him apparently smoking crack cocaine.

The actor was welcomed back to the Cobbles after going to rehab.

He told the TV series In Conversation With: “I was dead lucky that I had a wife, Jackie, who I adore and adores me, I had kids who know what I’m really like, and I had a reason to get better.

“I had a job that I loved and I had enough people who knew what I was like to say, ‘Let’s care, let’s care for him, let’s care about him, let’s get him well, rather than let’s sack him.”’