A CHARITY for the elderly is looking for volunteers in Worcester to help bring isolated old people closer together.

Contact The Elderly is a national organisation that has been uniting people for cakes and company' for more than 40 years.

But the group, which organises Sunday outings for frail people who live alone, needs volunteers to help with its service - and is also appealing for drivers and hosts.

Each volunteer with a car collects one or two elderly people every month and the group of eight to 10 members, together with volunteers, meet for afternoon tea in the house of a host.

They visit a different home each month and friendships soon develop.

Pamela Walker, regional development officer for the West Midlands, said Contact The Elderly has two volunteer drivers in Worcester, but it needs three more, together with six to nine more hosts.

She said: "If we get these volunteers, then a group of eight to 10 lonely and isolated older people can begin the monthly get-togethers, with the chance to get dressed-up, get away from their four walls to have a good laugh and a chat with new friends in safe and homely surroundings.

"They are then seen safely back to their homes. The service is totally free."

Drivers need their own car, and would need to be available one Sunday afternoon every month.

"They would collect the same passengers each month, travel to the host's house, arriving at about 3pm and then see their passengers safely home after about 5.30pm."

The hosts must be willing to organise a Sunday afternoon tea once, or perhaps twice, a year in their own home.

It would involve providing sandwiches, cakes and tea for a group of eight to 10 elderly people.

For more details telephone Contact the Elderly on freephone 0800 716 543 or visit www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk