Elderly people in the UK are establishing their own telephone and online networks, setting quizzes for their friends and sharing jokes and uplifting news stories from around the world as a way of supporting each other during the coronavirus lockdown.

Jean Coops, 85, from London, was asked by her vicar to keep in touch with some elderly parishioners from her local church, aged between 75 and 91. “I have a list of six people to keep in touch with but I expect the list will grow in the next few weeks as the lockdown drags on and the elderly feel more vulnerable and isolated,” she said.

“I ring everyone on my list once every few days. I ask how they are and whether there’s anything they need — although of course, there’s nothing I can really do because I’m as old as they are and so can’t go and do shopping for them.”

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Coops said once she had called the people on her list a couple of times, they began ringing her back to check she was OK too. “So we’ve become a mutual support group,” she said. “It’s rather nice and cheering, us older people all looking out for each other.”

Dr Geoff Foot, also in his 80s, emails a joke out to his network of friends every morning. “I do it to motivate and cheer them up a bit. It seems to be working as I now have a bank of about 40 jokes ready to send out over the coming weeks,” he said. “All these jokes have been supplied by members and so, in a sense, I’m acting as a focal point for distribution.”

Brian, 93, a car enthusiast in Birmingham, suggested that 18 of his friends, aged 88 to 103, set up a telephone rota. “We’re all linked by our love of cars and have been going to events together for decades,” he said. “I suggested we set up a system, so we all speak to at least one other person in our group each day. We’re all facing different stresses. Some of us are elderly carers and others are alone, with no family to keep in touch.

“All we can do is keep each other cheerful and, if someone isn’t answering their phone, will alert the emergency services.”

Nicola, 97, from Glasgow responded to a leaflet posted through her door from a local group of volunteers offering support, by ringing the group and asking if she could be a dedicated telephone support worker. “I just wanted to do something to help,” she said.

“I also understand the anxieties and fears of the older members of our community at a visceral level because I’m old too. I live alone, I am scared about the future and worry that I’m not going to have enough food and medication to see me through..”

Bob, 76, in Newcastle asked his local volunteer group if he could help with the logistics of dispensing aid to all the elderly people in the community. “I’ve spent hours drawing up online spreadsheets, working out who needs what and who can do it. I was pretty good on the computer before, but this has really made me into a computer whizz,” he said.

Geraldine and George, 87 and 89 respectively, have set up an email group and Zoom quiz for their group of similarly aged friends. “Geraldine and I now spend our week collecting together lists of uplifting news stories from around the world. Then we email it out on Fridays,” said George. “We then spend the weekend writing a quiz for our friends and then we all hold a Zoom meeting on Mondays and pretend we’re in our local, having a pub quiz. We even joke about whose turn it is to go to the bar and buy the next round.”