Generous Banburyshire people volunteer to help those stuck at home during the coronavirus crisis

The offers of help from people in Banbury, Chipping Norton and the villages range from doing shopping to dog walking, shopping, collecting prescriptions and even chatting over the phone to relieve loneliness and feelings of being cut off.

Genevieve Willis Long, of Spring Street, Chipping Norton got the idea of forming a Facebook group (Chipping Norton & villages Covid 19 community help and support) to allow those free and willing to help to pitch in their ideas and offers of assistance.

The busy page is now full of information. Many volunteers are going to print out postcards and leaflets to put through the doors of elderly people, giving a name, phone number and describing what they can do to help.

Mrs Willis Long said: "I saw on the Next Door website that someone in Churchill, Anne Mandry, had posted an offer of calling cut-off and isolated people so they have someone they can talk to. I thought that was a super thing to do. We started up a WhatsApp group and that lead to the Facebook page. Lots of people have joined and offered help."

Ms Mandry said: "With the chance that any of us may at some point have to either self-isolate or indeed be instructed to do so I would like to give my ‘phone number for anyone to call for a friendly chat. My number is 07894 706919. I have also started a What’s App group for people to feel in contact with the outside world too, so if anyone is interested in that please text me your number and I’ll add you to the group.

"You don’t have to live alone to join. It may be that you feel alone stuck inside a house with people you don’t necessarily wish to be with 24/7. Not everyone has a computer or What’s App on their phone so I would be grateful if people would pass the number on to neighbours who don’t."

Elin Cox of Hornton has offered help especially all the over 70s who will soon have to self-isolate for extended periods of time.



"People self-isolating will need help picking up shopping, posting mail, picking up urgent supplies or they may just need a friendly phone call
," said the Banbury Guardian's Hornton correspondent, Roger Corke."

Generous Banbury people have generated two groups dedicated to offering help of all kinds to those confined to home. There is the Banbury Coronavirus Support Group here and the Banbury Covid-19 Support Group for the Vulnerable here.

Martin Leonard of the Banbury Coronavirus Support Group said: "The group was only set up yesterday. I went onto Facebook to see if I could post an offer of help to anyone who needs it but I couldn't find a group. I set one up and within 12 hours it had 2000 members and will likely be close to 3000 by the end of the day (Tuesday).

"We have had local cafes offering food delivery services, dog walkers offering to walk peoples dogs, hundreds and hundreds of people offering to get shopping and supplies for anyone who needs it. Its really staggering how much support is out there. We even had a heating engineer offering free labour to go round and make sure people have heating and hot water."

Nathan Emerton of the Banbury Covid-19 group said: "We have 1400 people on the site all offering help from dog walking to shopping. This is a door to door service and we are working in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). We will have a dedicated number for people to ring very soon but in the meantime people can contact us on the page, or by emailing [email protected]."

Age UK and Action for Carers have set up a phone support service where those who are isolated or alone can have a weekly phone call.

A spokesman said: "This will include a friendly, regular weekly call to see how people are, to chat and also problem-solve if people are facing practical problems."

Anyone wishing to use the support service can find details here or phone the helpline on 01865 411 288 where you can leave your name and phone number on the answerphone.

Pets Corner, Chipping Norton is offering payment by phone and home delivery for those who are self-isolating. Call 01608 645097.