1.5km of Toenail Clippings and other achievements during lockdown

We thought it would make our statistics more interesting if we illustrated some of our achievements over the last year using examples from our county to put them in perspective.

Despite the lockdowns the Toenail Cutting service has continued, working to keep older people safe and comfortable on their feet, and the toenail clippings from the 1,453 appointments that have taken place, laid lengthwise these would span approximately 1.5km or to put it in perspective, 27.5 Wellington Monuments.

We quickly moved some of our Ageing Well exercise sessions online and these were attended 2,787 times generating enough calories (approx. 418,050) to burn off 1,990 pints of Somerset Cider or roughly 100kg of Cheddar Cheese.

We rapidly created a new Friendly Phone Calls service to offer a friendly chat for those feeling isolated and alone.  With 2,190 calls taking place, each lasting an average of 45 minutes, this would equate to over 3,500 episodes of BBC Points West or nearly 33,000 Wurzels songs.  That’s a lot of Combine Harvesters!

Imagine the weight of 10 new born Somerset lambs.  Via our Balls for Boredom scheme, with the postage sponsored by Girlings Retirements Rentals and wool donated for free by kind locals, we have sent out the approximate equivalent weight (1000 balls) for free to older knitters who were running out and couldn’t get to the shops.

Since the start of lockdown we quickly created one new support website (ageuksomersetcoronavirus.org.uk), equivalent to the number of Witches at Wookey Hole. 

The website was visited by 31,961 new visitors – imagine the size of a third of the crowd in front of the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

During this time, we have also helped 300% more older people across Somerset and North Somerset through our Information and Advice helpline, answering questions on a wide variety of topics such as how to get food and medicines delivered to doing benefit assessment checks for those who may have been struggling financially.

If you need help from us or would like to know more about the services we offer please call 01823 345610, email info@ageuksomerset.org.uk .