Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

The scale and impact of coronavirus is something that none of us would ever have expected to happen to us. If someone had told us just as little as a month ago that what was happening in China would happen here, we probably wouldn't have believed them. But it is. It will be temporary and we will get through it but to do that effectively we need to do all we can to help those who cannot help themselves right now.

Thousands of older people live in northern ireland and for these people life can be lonely, financially challenging and every day tasks impossible without assistance. For those of us who are fit and healthy this is a scary time, just think how these people are feeling right now. Many of them live alone. They may not have a partner or their partner may have sadly passed away, they may not have children or their children may live too far away to help, their friends may no longer be with them or if they are they are likely to be of similar age and isolated in their own homes, they may not have access to technology to keep some semblance of social interaction. For those that are lucky enough to have family and friends to help right now, that could be taken away if they themselves become infected and need to self-isolate. It is our responsibility as a community to support our elderly in whatever way we can. Each and every one of us, or our loved ones, could be in that position some day. 

Organisations like AgeNI work tirelessly to help people who find themselves in this unfortunate position on a daily basis and their services will be under even more demand as this virus progresses. 

It is becoming highly likely over the coming months that a significant number of us will get to experience the feeling of isolation and complete reliance on others that our elderly feel on a daily basis. I would ask that you consider that reality without the backup of your family and friends and donate just a little so that you can make this reality just a little easier for the elderly in our community during this period of unprecedented uncertainty.

I thank you all in advance for your support.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.