‘A lot more people are here for help now’
With the rising cost of living causing many to struggle, Lidl is supporting the charities who are helping the vulnerable
The staff of the Lifehouse centre in Portsmouth would love to help everyone who needs it, but they know it isn’t possible. “There’s a lot of vulnerable people out there,” says manager Mike Morell.
What the charity does is still impressive, giving out 500 food parcels a month, with around 25 a week being delivered to vulnerable people who cannot make it into the building. It also offers a full cooked breakfast on Wednesdays and an evening meal on Thursdays.
The centre is open three days a week and also provides rooms for meetings, free Wi-fi to help with job applications or benefits, a range of donated clothes and household items and visits from hairdressers and footcare specialists.
Meanwhile, the cost of living is rising sharply. “We have a lot more people coming to the door for food parcels now,” says Mike. “They’re starting to queue outside in the morning. When benefits are paid monthly people start to run out of money around week three or four.”
To meet this growing demand, Lifehouse has looked to businesses for support and donations. “Lidl has been great,” says Mike. “It has the donation boxes at the front of the supermarket, but it’s also very good at giving us things from the back, like multipacks that have been split up, or mislabelled produce.”
The supermarket chain is working with Neighbourly, a platform that connects local businesses with charities in their area. A fund of £500,000 has been set up by Lidl, which is accessible to the network of charities that currently collect food from Lidl GB stores to give to those in need.
And thanks to a grant from Lidl, Lifehouse has been able to get a new door for its centre. “The old one had been boarded over – it was basically just a sheet of wood,” says Mike. The new door is much more secure and it is also wider, which improves accessibility for users in wheelchairs or with prams.
The grant awarded by Lidl means Lifehouse and other charities like it can continue to give support to the people who need it. And Lidl shoppers can know they are spending their money with a retailer who cares about their community.
i don’t want people to jack in their marriage just because one of the parties goes a bit cool for a while,” rosemary says. “yes, my husband didn’t love me anymore and that was painful. But i really loved him and i just had to keep the faith. Miraculously, we rebuilt our relationship and here we are growing old together.”
in 1986, just before she and Mike got back together for the first time, rosemary made a big change in her life. she’d been facing huge challenges – ipc had sold Successful Slimming and disbanded the associated fitness clubs, leaving her without a job. and she found herself in hospital undergoing surgery for gallstones. she began reading Power For Living, a book that helps people find a personal relationship with God and, after reciting one of the prayers in the book, felt a dramatic shift.
“i got out of bed and prayed,” she recalls. “and there were no flashing lights or claps of thunder or anything like that, but i got back into that hospital bed and i felt as though i’d been washed through, like my past had been washed away, that the slate was wiped clean and now i was going to start living a new life.
“i just felt that it was all going
to be ok. then, a couple of days later, Mike came to see me and said he was missing me and i felt this strong sense that we should be together. so i waited until the following Friday and then i proposed to him and we got married four months later.”
soon afterwards, rosemary, who has been a christian ever since, began to form the diet that launched her into the public sphere. it was followed by her 1988 bestseller The Hip And Thigh Diet. By 1990, she had her own BBC series, fitness videos and magazine.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing since then. in 2014, her food, fitness and publishing businesses went into administration. these days, she focuses on the website rosemaryconley.com that she launched in 2021 as a resource for helping over-fifties get fit. during the first lockdown she also wrote a book called The 28-Day Immunity Plan.
rosemary still struggles with her own health and admits the pandemic was a worrying time. her doctor advised her to isolate, meaning she spent much of 2020 and 2021 at home. she’s now returning to normality, she says, but still enjoys teaching classes each week.
“i still get a huge buzz from it. it’s crazy, isn’t it?” she laughs. “here we are, 50 years on, and i still love it.”
rosemary, who is now 75, insists her age isn’t slowing her down at all.
“i’m such an advocate for people my age to get moving. i run around like a 40-year-old, and you would not know that i’m in my seventies,” she says.
“i just feel very grateful for the fact that i have lived as long as i have, because i wasn’t really supposed to live beyond 10 years old,” she adds. “i’m in bonus time now and i feel very blessed.”
‘I’m in bonus time now – I wasn’t expected to survive beyond 10’
Rosemary Conley’s autobiography Through Thick And Thin is published by SPCK and available online and in all major bookstores