How 'Happy to Chat' benches are tackling loneliness

A simple dog walk has led to a craze that is sweeping the UK and as far afield as Australia and North America.

Allison Owen-Jones, 53, watched as an elderly man sat alone on a park bench.

She declined to join him, for fear the man would regard her as "weird".

So she composed words that would "open the avenues" for people and wrote them on cards that she attached to benches in May.

The Senior Citizen Liaison Team charity has pushed on the idea, with 'Happy to Chat' benches now appearing all over the UK and as far as Washington, Vancouver, Kiev and Brisbane.

"All of a sudden, people are not invisible anymore," she said.