'He was almost in tears! "I don't know what I'd do without you!"'

Sarah approached us to become a shopping volunteer at the beginning of the pandemic: 'I was grateful for the people who were helping my grandparents in Wales. I couldn’t help them, but this gave me the chance to do the same for someone else’s grandparents.’ We matched her with a man who lives on his own. His neice used to care for him but was stuck in Greece during the first lockdown.

'I've got to know him really well over the year - we talk about his family back in Greece, his life and I chat about what's going on with me too.

'Early on there was an incident which really bonded us. I called to drop off some food, and he took ages to get to the door. He told me he’d had a fall the night before and that he was in complete agony and had barely moved since.  I rang 999 and they sent an emergency vehicle but we had to wait for 4 hours until it arrived. I waited with him the whole time to make sure he was ok. It was pretty traumatic for him and I was the first person to see him since his fall. It was lucky I turned up when I did. In the end it turned out he fractured his back.

'Our encounters are not always so dramatic, but over the year of weekly chats it’s become a proper little friendship. I made him cup cakes for his birthday and he gave me a birthday card which he signed as ‘uncle’. This was incredibly touching.

'He says now that he doesn’t really need the shopping – he just enjoys talking every week and seeing each other.

'As well as these chats,  I also help him out with other bits and pieces. He’s had some housing issues which I’ve been sorting, for instance. He’s not got internet access so I book his vaccine and doctor appointments for him – tasks which are easy for me but almost impossible for him to do.

'One week he was almost in tears saying I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’m so grateful.

'I’ve got so much out of this too. During lockdown it gave me a purpose and it made me happy seeing that I was making such a difference to someone’s week. It’s also been great interacting and getting to know someone from a different generation with a completely different range of experiences.'