A GROUP which aims to relieve the isolation and loneliness of elderly people living on their own is desperate to recruit volunteers.

Contact for the Elderly is anxious for more drivers and host families to give pensioners an afternoon out. Recruits are especially needed to keep the Bury branch open.

The scheme enables elderly people, usually aged 70 plus, who live alone without family nearby and who are no longer able to get out unless assisted, to be taken to a host family where they can chat and have a meal. Volunteer drivers collect the same elderly people once a month, on a Sunday afternoon, and visit a volunteer host family for tea. The group visits a different host each month.

Jenny Broadhurst, Contact's Greater Manchester development officer, said: "This monthly outing with friends is something they look forward to with great pleasure and often becomes a link to normal social contact for those who spend long hours alone."

Volunteer drivers are required for four hours, one Sunday afternoon a month, and hosts for four hours a year. Hosts need only provide a large teapot.

Host Mrs Harriet Clarke last weekend welcomed a number of elderly people to her Lord Street home in Radcliffe.

Jenny added: "It's a wonderful way of putting something back into the community as well as being very rewarding."

Anyone who would like to become a host or driver should ring Jenny Broadhurst on 01942 217577 or Joan on 772 0451.