Here at Age UK Bradford District we are working to develop our vision to make Bradford District a great place for people in later life through valuing everyones future, developing age friendly communities and putting people first.

We have now launched our Annual Appeal and it would be hugely appreciated if you could support us. We have developed a range of fundraising opportunities that you may be able to take advantage of. We have also identified three special occasions which any fundraising activities could be linked to:

National Day of Unplugging 1 March 2019. Why not turn off those mobile phones and tablets and go an hour, 3 hours, half a day or even a WHOLE DAY without using them? Collect donations (or fines!) throughout the day and ask individuals to get their own sponsorship especially from those who wont believe that they can do it!

Walk of Ages 16 March 2019. Join our team or make a donation for our marathon plus walk covering 28.8 miles as we travel from Baildon to Wrose via the scenic route and all our shops!

International Day of Happiness 20 March 2019. The culmination of our Appeal and the chance to celebrate this special day in UNESCOs calendar with some fun, fundraising activity. What about encouraging people to wear something that makes them happy? This could be a t-shirt from a concert by their favourite group; a sports shirt for the team they support; a hat that reminds them of a fantastic holiday; some jewellery given to them by a loved one, etc, etc, etc. Each individual would, of course, have a story to tell to go alongside the item which would create some great conversations and, hopefully, plenty of smiling faces!

Any and all contributions are extremely welcome and every pound that we raise will make a real difference to older people living in Bradford District.

Firstly, there are currently over 9,000 lonely older people living across Bradford District. Our teams work with as many individuals as possible, listening and talking to people to find out what would make a real difference in their lives. Last year we were able to work with 5,500 lonely older people in the area. We would like to work with more.

Your support would help us to:

Create SIX new Lunch Clubs for ONE HUNDRED older people (Target - £3,000)

Support TWO HUNDRED older people with new Home Buddies (Target - £2,500)

Support FIVE HUNDRED older people with new Telephone Buddies (target - £1,500)

Secondly, daily exercise helps us all to stay strong and healthy, lowering the risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer. If that wasn't enough, staying active can boost self-esteem, improve sleep, and give you more energy. Government guidelines recommend that older people do 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week, as well as strengthening exercises twice a week. We supported activity sessions for 250 older people last year and we would like to support more.

Your support would help us to:

Create SIX new Activity Groups for ONE HUNDRED older people (Target - £3,000)

And thirdly, as we get older we often face new challenges and experience events that impact on our health and wellbeing. Some of these events may include bereavement, diagnosis of health conditions, divorce, retirement etc. For some people these events can have a major impact and without the correct support can result in crisis. In these cases our information and advice team will work with individuals to identify a person centred package of support to enable and support people to move forward. We work together to help identify what people would like to achieve to make the most from this transition point.

Your support would help us to:

Support ONE HUNDRED older people who are in crisis (Target - £10,000)

Thank you.