COMMUNITY SUPPORT CONTINUES BEHIND THE SCENES

Many generous spirited volunteers have registered with our local Community Network so that help can be found for anyone contacting that coordinating group. Some have also volunteered as NHS responders, as part of the coordinated agency support for vulnerable individuals. Tasks have included supermarket runs, collections from pharmacists or just turning up for a (socially-distanced) friendly chat with someone self-isolating. Others, working with Age Concern, have become ‘Phone Buddies’ with elderly people. One local volunteer, in their role as a community support worker visiting a patient with a life limiting condition living in Hailsham, had the great idea of recording the life story of the elderly person they have been keeping in touch with. Elsewhere, a group got busy stitching together scrubs bags for short-supplied NHS teams. And of course the Rushlake Green village stores has kept up the frenetic pace of its customer services, which have included creating an entirely new storage space for its many daily orders for those unable to venture out.