Imagine a day when...

you didn't see anyone

no one called in

no one phoned, or emailed or texted or Tweeted or Facebooked you

you had no contact with anyone else from getting up to going to bed.

Now imagine that the next day was the same, and the next and the next.

This is the reality for over 5000 older people in Northumberland.

Most of us have felt very lonely and alone at some point in our lives. It's a profoundly personal and painful experience. It can become increasingly difficult to build new and meaningful relationships that could restore our sense of self and self-worth. The fact that loneliness carries a stigma can make it hard to admit to it and seek help. And often people don't know where to go for support.

Everybody should have somebody

At Age UK Northumberland, we believe that everybody should have somebody and all of the services that staff and volunteers provide, work in some way to reduce loneliness. All of our services are vital to the older people of Northumberland but to sustain them, we need your help. Northumberland is vast county and we can't do it alone.

Alone we can make a difference. Together we can make a change.

Not many people know this, but Age UK Northumberland is actually a small independent charity that relies on fundraising and grant funding to sustain and develop services for older people.

Last year, thanks to your generosity, we raised enough money to develop the Friendship Line , our new telephone befriending service, which opened in July this year.

This year, our aim is to sustain the Friendship Line and make it more accessible to older people. We would also like to introduce Social Fridays, our unique befriending group, to more communities in the county, especially those in rural areas. All donations will be used to develop and sustain befriending services in Northumberland, because at Age UK Northumberland, we believe