Campaigners warn loneliness still cutting lives short in region

THE LONELINESS crisis “shows no sign of slowing down”, campaigners have warned, more than three years after The Yorkshire

Post began an award-winning campaign to highlight its devastating blight on thousands of people in the region.

The Campaign to End Loneliness, partners in The Yorkshire

Post Loneliness: The Hidden Epidemic campaign, warned that chronic loneliness is “still cutting lives short” in the region, despite the issue coming to the fore since we began campaigning in February 2014.

More than 91,000 older people in Yorkshire and the Humber say they are lonely some or most of time, and evidence shows it can contribute to dementia, high blood pressure and other health conditions. This newspaper, joined by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, campaigners, a Yorkshire MP and the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, is now calling on our readers to take personal responsibility for those in our lives at risk of loneliness.

Mrs Cox first announced her plans for a cross-party commission examining the crisis of loneliness in The Yorkshire Post in February 2016, just four months before her murder.

Her sister Kim Leadbeater said a “secret army” of volunteers were already letting people know “they are not alone” and applauded the Hidden Epidemic campaign for letting people know they “have the power to effect change”. Mr Hunt, who commended

The Yorkshire Post campaign, said loneliness could have a “devastating impact” on a person’s health and wellbeing.

He said: “This country should be the best in the world for growing old and it is important that we act together as a society and a government to ensure the social contract between generations.”