Silver service benefits from green fingers

A TELEPHONE service for older people who feel isolated and alone has been named Burbage Gardening Club’s chosen charity for 2018.

The Silver Line, a free, national helpline, will benefit from fundraising activities organised by the group and from donations made at the club’s annual show in August.

Volunteers from the charity, which was set up by TV presenter Esther Rantzen, talked to gardening club members about their work at a recent meeting.

Open to anyone aged over 55, The Silver Line operates 24/7 365 days a year offering information, advice and friendship.

As well as providing a confidential helpline service, directing people to local and national services that might help them, it also arranges weekly 30-minute calls to an older person from a Silver Line volunteer, fortnightly letters to older people feeling isolated and weekly group calls which last for about an hour on a shared interest or topic.

Everyone attending Burbage Gardening Club’s 72nd annual show, which will be held in Hastings High School, St Catherine’s Close, Burbage on Saturday August 18, will be invited to make a donation to the cause.

Admission to the show is free and doors will open to the public at 4.30pm.

To find out more about The Silver Line go online or to call the service ring the freephone number 0800 4 70 80 90.

Burbage Gardening Club members with The Silver Line charity volunteers David Lebutt and Derrick Swallow (third from left and third from right respectively) who gave a talk about the cause which the club has named its chosen charity for 2018.