Reading Friends in Staffordshire was highlighted on the Lottery Good Causes pages in November 2020, featuring the story of Denise and Monica and how poems built a lockdown friendship.

In the early stages of lockdown, Denise was reluctant to answer the phone for fear of bursting into tears. As full-time carer for her husband, she already felt isolated, and lockdown meant she began to feel increasingly lonely. She realised that what she needed was a friend. She heard about Reading Friends and got her first call from Reading Befriender Monica in April 2020.

Read the story of their friendship in the full article here. This Reading Friends project is delivered by Staffordshire Libraries. You can find out more about them here.