Sunny days

21st July 2015

I’ve got to be honest, I’m feeling a bit star struck. Or is that Sun struck? The well-known actress Sunny Ormonde (Lilian Bellamy in The Archers) has just been in Macclesfield, performing her one-woman show in support of our Live at Home Scheme there, and she brought the house down. Thanks to her generous donation of her time, all the proceeds from the evening went towards supporting the Scheme’s new dementia cafes, a really important service for the town and its community.

Sunny called Live at Home “a fantastic scheme that stops people being lonely.” But she really hit the nail on the head when she added that she wanted people to be aware of Live at Home “not just in Macclesfield, but everywhere.”

And that’s the crux of it. We’ve got a plan for expansion over the next ten years at MHA, and part of that is quadrupling the number of people we serve through Live at Home to reach 36,000. As Sunny said, the population is ageing. People want to stay independent in their own homes for as long as possible, active and engaged, not isolated and lonely. That’s what Live at Home is all about. And by promoting independence and wellbeing, it also relieves the strain on local health services.

So I’m thrilled that Sunny is giving her support. You can also offer yours, if you’d like to, either as a volunteer or by making a donation – click here to find out more.

You can read more about Sunny’s performance and support for MHA here, and in the next issue of Heart and Soul, out in September.

Alison Slater

Services Manager – Community Services, Retirement Living