First class! Post office to serve up free dinners
A POST office is offering a free Christmas Day dinner to people who would otherwise be on their own.
Postmistress Sonya Carey and her husband Nigel will open their branch at Pontrilas in Herefordshire and cook food donated by local farmers.
The couple will even pick people up. Mrs Carey said: “My
dedicated adviser and all health and social care workers to have specialist dementia training.
Mr Hughes said: “Successive governments have shirked the issue of our broken care system, forcing people affected by dementia to fend for themselves.
“We urgently need the postponed NHS Long Term Plan and social care Green Paper to end this injustice.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We are already looking at how to improve carers’ access to breaks and respite care and our forthcoming Green Paper will look at long-term sustainable solutions for the social care system.”
● Join the campaign at alzheimers.org.uk/fixdementiacare. Contact the National Dementia Helpline on 0300 222 1122 or go to alzheimers.org.uk family are grown up and spend Christmas day with their own families which means I can spend the 25th giving back to our community.
“Residents have said that our post office is the glue to this community – hearing things like that make our efforts all worthwhile.”
Post Office network
LONELINESS GETS HARDER AT FESTIVE TIME
THE festive period can “amplify” feelings of loneliness, a top doctor warned as she encouraged people to connect with others in the community.
Professor Helen StokesLampard, pictured, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, warned that loneliness and social isolation can be as bad for a person’s health as chronic diseases.
She encouraged people to be good citizens and connect with friends and neighbours in a meaningful way.
Ms Stokes-Lampard said: “Any festival or gathering where people get together can development director Tom Moran said: “Our branches are at the heart of communities and we know how much people rely on our services.
“We’re extremely proud of people like Sonya who provide so much more than Post Office services to their customers, not just at Christmas but throughout the year.” extenuate or magnify feelings of being isolated or lonely. “People usually are already vulnerable and also it’s darker, the whole SAD (seasonal affective disorder) thing about short days amplifies this.
“As a GP we see people in their communities, we are part of their communities and we see the adverse impact these things have on people’s health – these are as bad as chronic diseases to your health.”
She urged people to become “great citizens” by looking a little bit wider among the community beyond immediate relatives. FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, who died over the weekend aged 77, was keen to stress he had honoured a famously ill-fated pledge made on the eve of the 2015 election result.
The one-time Royal Marine was never allowed to forget his vow to “publicly eat his hat” if the Lib Dems won just 10 seats as predicted (they ended up faring even worse). Speaking in March this year, Ashdown confirmed: “I have since eaten five hats. I have eaten a chocolate and marzipan hat. I have eaten a shortbread one. I have eaten a hat made from a Cornish pasty...I have eaten a biscuit one, and one genuine, but extremely small hat.
“It was a miniature hat that was presented to me, a small baseball cap. I thought, ‘I could probably swallow that,’ so I did. I have done my penance.” REFLECTING on Jeremy Corbyn’s “stupid woman” controversy, Tory veteran Ken Clarke, 78, mischievously inquires: “I need to take some advice: I suppose a woman can’t call me a ‘stupid man’ any more? Although several have in my time.” THERESA MAY recently chose to compare herself to longtime English sporting hero Geoffrey Boycott, reminding journalists present that the cricketer “stuck to it and got the runs in the end”.
The man himself, 78, who underwent heart surgery in June, now cheerfully tweets: “Just had my six month post-heart op check-up. I’m pleased to say I’m fit as a butcher’s dog, have a clean bill of health and I’m open to employment!”
RECALLING her role as a Bond girl 50 years ago, Dame Diana Rigg points out she was required to perform her own terrifying car stunt at the time.
The actress, who starred as Countess Tracy di Vicenzo in 1969’s On Her Majesty Secret Service, explains: “They said, ‘Get in, you’re driving around this ice rink,’ and they gave me about three laps around to learn how. The really scary part happened when they strapped the cameraman to the bonnet. You’ve never seen anybody so green. It was not my responsibility for my life, it was my responsibility for his life!”
Reminded she is the only Bond girl to have actually married James Bond to date, no-nonsense Dame Diana, pictured, responds: “Yes I am...and I got killed shortly afterwards.”