ALL over Oxfordshire thousands of older people are fighting one of the cruellest but hardest-to-spot maladies of all: loneliness.

This year the Oxford Mail is working with Age UK Oxfordshire to raise £5,400 for its “Phone Friends” service for older people desperately in need of human contact.

Social groups like Friendleys, in Blackbird Leys, have been doing their bit to achieve the same ends in the run-up to Christmas.

For regulars like Alan Wright, 80, the group is about more than a cup of tea and a cake: in the past it has proved a lifeline.

Mr Wright, of Brook View, Greater Leys, met his wife Kathleen in the 1970s when both were serving as cooks at the old Cowley Road Hospital. They married in 1972.

But Kathleen suffered from early onset dementia and, after moving into the Shrublands Centre care home in Cumnor, passed away in 2009 aged just 61.

Mr Wright said: “I was on my own. I had been to a ‘follow-up’ support group but by Christmas two years ago there were only about six of us left.

“I was getting really gloomy. Eventually when you’ve been on your own all the time it builds up on you. You don’t want to go out and you forget how to be around people.”

Mr Wright encountered Friendleys in June 2014 and settled in quickly, using his past catering experience to help set up and serve refreshments. He added: “There were about 11 of us then and it has greatly grown.

“Friendleys changed my life. I think it will have quite surprised Liz but I mean it sincerely. It’s something to look forward to each week, and has really opened up my life again. I don’t feel as alone.”

Fellow member Peggy Dolton, 81, of Kestrel Crescent, has lived in Blackbird Leys since it was first built in the 1950s.

She has lived alone since her husband Eric passed away four years ago. She added: “He was a lovely husband; we had two children, a boy and a girl, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“I have been coming to Friendleys since it started. I’m on my own, lonely, and it gives me something to get out to. It’s great to meet people and chatter with a cup of tea.”

The Friendleys group was set up in March 2014 and meets every Wednesday in Blackbird Leys Community Centre.

Backing our Lonely This Christmas appeal, founder Liz Helliwell, 72, said: “I think Phone Friends is a great idea. Some elderly people might be unsure about answering the phone unless they have someone they know. I would like to think that people will donate money to the cause.”

She added: “Although I had a large family I’m quite happy to be alone. But for some people, when their family move away and it’s just them, they’re rattling around in their house and feel lonely.

“Some become recluses and get to the point when they don’t want to go out, or even open their front doors. Friendleys gives them somewhere to go and chat.”

According to Age UK Oxfordshire, Northfield Brook, which encompasses about half of the estate, is one of the places where over-65s are most at risk of loneliness in the whole of the county.

Mrs Helliwell added: “Northfield Brook is original Blackbird Leys and has a large older generation; I can understand it.

“But we are open to anyone. They don’t have to be from the Leys; they can be from anywhere and if they can get here, they can come here.”

On Wednesday, December 9, about 20 group members will tuck into a Christmas lunch at the Bullnose Morris pub. They will be joined by a cohort from nearby Longlands Care Home and Councillor Sian Taylor, who represents Northfield Brook on Oxford City Council, has donated £200 towards costs.

For more information on Friendleys call 07810047819.