Our aim at Age UK Essex is to help older people live well in later life and remain independent in their own homes. We do this by offering Home Help services that give support to people in the form of cleaning, laundry and general household chores, as well as carrying out shopping, outdoor activities, help with food preparation and sitting and companionship to give respite to carers. We also have a toenail cutting service that deliver clinics and home visits to people who have difficulty carrying out this very basic daily need that many of us take for granted being able to do. This can be essential to people to remain mobile and to check for underlying health problems.

We also have a Befriending service that provides lonely and isolated older people with a weekly phone call or visit to their home. This is a lifeline to many of the older people we support, who without it could go for days or even a week without seeing or hearing from someone. A situation I'm sure none of us could consider right now but it's often the way life becomes for older people. We provide older people with an information and advice line that helps with so many complex situations and often the people we are supporting are incredibly vulnerable. It might be that they or their families need to access information and advice about the benefits they're entitled to or for finding and funding care. This service is vastly underfunded meaning we're only supporting a fraction of those that need the service. Funds raised from the Pru 100 bike ride will go towards providing more provision in this service.