{"id":49358,"date":"2024-03-08T12:25:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T12:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheflive.co.uk\/?p=49358"},"modified":"2024-03-08T12:25:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T12:25:05","slug":"friendship-lunches-held-to-tackle-loneliness-and-isolation-among-the-elderly-in-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/03\/08\/friendship-lunches-held-to-tackle-loneliness-and-isolation-among-the-elderly-in-sheffield\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendship Lunches held to tackle loneliness and isolation among the elderly in Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A monthly ‘Music Makes Memories’ Friendship Lunch has helped to bring people in our region together for food, conversation and entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monthly Friendship Lunches take place around South Yorkshire, North East Derbyshire and West Yorkshire, bringing people together to tackle loneliness among the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organisers have said the event is to help isolated old people in Sheffield, with some GPs and the NHS recommending the it and even socially prescribing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Guests sitting down at the first Killamarsh Friendship Lunch held on 22nd February 2024<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ericka Hill, the Fundraising, Marketing and Communications Officer for Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care, SCCCC, said: \u201cIt is important for us to be involved, no one should be lonely. The pandemic showed us what’s bad about isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical experts agree that being alone and living alone can be isolating and can affect your mental health. Organisers have said this is why these Friendship Lunches are so vital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay Bhayani, managing director of Bhayani HR & Employment Law sponsors the Friendship Lunches on a monthly basis, as do Golden Years Support Services and Staves Estate Agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care sponsors the posters for the Friendship Lunches, along with TwelveTrees Care, Visiting Angels South Yorkshire, Norrie Waite & Slater and Sheffcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy Markwick first launched the event 10 years ago, in September 2014 at the Holiday Inn in Barnsley. She had only just left the banking sector at HSBC, after 34 years, to enter the care sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She realised how many elderly lonely people there were and from this moment she decided to make a difference and asked the 3 Rotary Clubs in Barnsley for support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inaugural event in Barnsley hosted around 40 guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy said: \u201cThe event was a huge success and we didn\u2019t realise our numbers were going to rise to 250 in the next few years. It was just lovely seeing people arriving, they’ve got dressed up, they’ve made an effort and have something to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy\u2019s Friendship Lunches now host around 50 guests in multiple locations during the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Police Community Support Officer Jon Flower talking to guests at the Toby Dronfield event<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of her friendship lunches, Kathy was invited to 10 Downing Street to celebrate what she was doing by the Yorkshire Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: \u201cOverall we\u2019re making a difference to people\u2019s lives.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lunches take place in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Dronfield, Killamarsh and Wakefield. A typical Friendship Lunch includes live music, a 2-course lunch and a raffle – average price is \u00a312 pp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information contact Kathy on 0772 9528844 <\/strong>or email kathymarkwick@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A monthly ‘Music Makes Memories’ Friendship Lunch has helped to bring people in our region together for food, conversation and entertainment. The monthly Friendship Lunches take place around South Yorkshire, North East Derbyshire and West Yorkshire, bringing people together to tackle loneliness among the elderly. Organisers have said the event is to help isolated old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,164,5,132,166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-mental-health","category-news","category-top-stories","category-top-story-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}