Nottingham woman sends 1,900 Christmas cards to strangers Published duration 23 December 2019

image caption Mo Fayose is on a mission to stop people feeling lonely at Christmas

A woman has written and hand-delivered 1,900 Christmas cards to strangers in an effort to combat loneliness.

Mo Fayose, from Nottingham, spent months staying up late into the night writing the cards and then trekking the streets to deliver them.

The 45-year-old said she wanted to reach out to the vulnerable.

Every card was delivered with chocolates and an invitation to dinner on Christmas Day, hosted by a team of volunteers.

image copyright Mo Fayose image caption Each handwritten card included chocolate and an invitation to a Christmas dinner hosted by volunteers

"There's an atmosphere about Christmas that makes it very, very depressing for many, many people - being given something, being remembered, makes a lot of difference," she said.

She said she was "gutted" when she ran out of cards last week.

"I had reached number 35 on a street... but it had another 30 houses. Maybe there's someone in need?

"Next year I'm going to make even more and start again, where I finished."

image copyright Mo Fayose image caption Miss Fayose encouraged other people to do the same

She bought the cards in bulk after Christmas last year to keep down costs but said she lost count of how much she spent, with the total somewhere "in the hundreds".

"Someone came out and said thank you, and I could see on their face it meant something to them," she said.

"It's all about love. If you can give that back, that little gesture means everything."

The mum-of-two, who runs the Community Cares Club, came up with the idea while working as a mental health nurse when a woman told her how isolated she had become.

"She said, 'can you imagine, no-one even sends me Christmas cards'. That hit something inside me, it hurt me."

image copyright Mo Fayose image caption As well as hosting an annual Christmas dinner, this year Mo and her team will be delivering meals to people who cannot leave their house

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