A North Hampshire charity is appealing for new volunteers nearly a year since it held its first start up meeting.

Calls And Visits for the Homebound, which recently received a £500 donation from The Co-operative Food – Church Crookham, was started by local resident Christine Oldfield who has personal experience of isolation after she suffered a massive injury in 2013.

Christine said, despite there being support to get people out and about if they were isolated, she struggled to find anything local for people whose circumstances made home visits more suitable.

Christine, from Church Crookham, said: “My consultant said he did not think I would ever be able to go for a walk again and I felt quite isolated. Even though I had my family coming home at the end of the day, I was still spending most of everyday alone.

“I was in too much pain to travel anywhere. I just needed someone to break up the day and have a chat.”

Calls and Visits, part of the Good Neighbour’s Network, now helps match volunteers with people of any age who find it difficult to leave their homes – whether due to age, sickness, or caring for another – with those who have time to chat.

Sadly there was plenty of isolation before the pandemic, but Christine says it has made a lot more people realise how impactful solitude can be.

Thanks to the recent donation from the Southern Co-op store in Aldershot Road, the charity’s current focus is on getting new volunteers so they can expand their help to even more people.

Christine said: “As a new charity, we had very little with no savings – so the donation from the Church Crookham co-op store has been really appreciated.

“Currently we have a dozen people receiving support and several more on a waiting list. We’d be delighted to hear from people who can volunteer their time. We want to be here for people for the long term.”

Calls and Visits, which operates in Church Crookham and Fleet, receives referrals directly, from relatives, and from local groups including the GP Social Prescribers – helping patients to improve their health, wellbeing and welfare by connecting them to community services.

Donna Cotterill, Store Manager at The Co-operative Food – Church Crookham, said: “Christine is so passionate about what she does. It’s just nice to be able to help. If you can’t go out of the house then who else have you got? Sometimes they just want someone to talk to. It tugs on my heartstrings.”

The funding from Southern Co-op’s Love Your Neighbourhood programme is being used pay for the phone bill, allowing an answering message service and calls to fix up first appointments between the befrienders and the service users.

Applications are now open for the next round of local funding with more information via southern.coop/.

To find out more about volunteering with Calls and Visits, please email [email protected] or call 01252 621599 (message).

For information on groups in other areas, the Good Neighbour’s Network, which supports over 120 voluntary groups across Hampshire, can be contacted on 023 92 899671 or via [email protected].