A PROJECT supporting people on the Isle of Wight is to receive almost £200,000 thanks to a national newspaper and the National Lottery.
The Hampton Trust, Making Connections and Isle of Wight Alzheimer’s Cafes are to receive £192,796 from the Silver Dreams Fund — a joint initiative between the Daily Mail and the Big Lottery Fund — to create a free service for older Islanders facing life changing events.
The project was devised following a consultation with Islanders.
Dr Kim Brown, chief executive of the Hampton Trust, said: "In Britain we spend a lot of time planning. We plan for our holidays, our savings, our weddings and our retirements. Many of us make plans for our deaths, through drawing up a will.
"The one area where most of us don’t plan is for how we are going to live when a life changing event, such as illness, alters the course of our future.
"Yet this is the time of our lives when we are most vulnerable, most in need of ensuring our voices are heard and most in need of dignity and respect."
She added: "Our project sees friends and family as fundamental in providing support for their older relative. It also takes into account the needs of any carer, especially when that carer is elderly and frail themselves."
Dr Brown said the project would need volunteers and they welcomed older people willing to get involved.
For further information of to request a volunteer pack, e-mail tara.doel@hamptontrust.org.uk or telephone 02380 213520.