I currently speak with three very lonely older ladies. We chat about all sorts of things, mainly exchanging conversations about our families. One of my ladies tells me she can discuss things with me that she doesn’t feel she could share with her family. I find that a huge privilege that she finds me such a confidant; I help in any way I can…
It feels like we’ve known each other forever and I hope we can continue our calls for many more years to come. I class him as one of my closest friends even though we have never met and never will…
I am approaching my 10-month volunteering anniversary with Sightline having heard about the opportunity through another charity near to where I live. I thought it would be perfect for me as I have glaucoma and sensitivity to light so can understand life living with sight loss and share my support to someone else in a similar boat to me…
Football is always a talking point during our calls. We always have a bit of banter about how Claire’s team are performing in The Championship; it’s never that well so we never end up spending more than a couple of minutes on that at the start of our calls!
I can’t ever imagine not volunteering my time to do these calls now; they’re so enjoyable and I really would miss chatting to my befriendees. I’ve struck up real friendships with both and look forward to picking up the phone each week…
Sightline is absolutely delighted to receive £10,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation. This will help with the delivery of Sightline’s telephone befriending service for visually impaired people.
We’re approaching our first year anniversary and we hit it off straight away as we could share similar experiences living with glaucoma. I like to talk about anything and everything, so we never run out of things to chat about. I still have my central vision so enjoy watching soaps like Emmerdale. My befriender doesn’t watch soaps, but she still always asks what’s been happening and if I enjoyed the episode last week!
I would really miss the calls with Ben if they didn’t happen. They make all my Monday mornings different and get rid of those Monday morning blues! Whether it’s reminiscing about childhood experiences or what we’ve done week by week I really enjoy all our calls…
All my befriendees are very different and I like that. They may differ wildly in age range and interests but there’s one common factor that draws all our conversations together and that is their loneliness living with sight loss. Many of my befriendees don’t feel they have anything outside of their immediate life at home and/or have a lack of family support…
With family living some distance away I don’t have anyone visiting other than a neighbour and her husband who I became friendly with during the pandemic. This has proved vital and a real lifeline to me given my recent hip surgery. The Sightline Telephone Befriending Service has provided another opportunity for friendship…
