Chorley friendship group made me smile again, says widower

A friendship group in Lancashire says it has been giving people hit hard by loneliness during the Covid pandemic "a reason to start living again".

Charity Friends For You helps people in the Chorley area meet new people and combat loneliness.

Founder Marjorie Hayward says some regulars had struggled to get up some mornings but now its coffee mornings have resumed they "have a purpose again".

Gerald said since his wife died in March he has had a "very lonely life" but the befriending events have "put a smile back on my face".

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