THANK YOU for the incredible response to our #ThereWithYou campaign yesterday.

Many of our readers are elderly, are self-isolating and don’t have access to our website. Therefore it’s really important that we can continue to bring them the latest trusted information via their daily Oxford Mail newspaper. Your support helps us to help them and for that, we thank you.

This campaign will continue to run as we move through these unprecedented times. There are lots of positive things we will be doing as part of this.

The next step in the Oxford Mail’s campaign is helping local businesses as much as we can.

The government unveiled a package of plans to help workers yesterday - but local support it still needed.

It is no secret that we don’t get by entirely on the profits of newspaper sales. We rely on our loyal advertisers, many of whom have been in Oxfordshire for decades. We rely on their support to continue to bring you a comprehensive, 24/7 trusted news service. In short, their survival is vital to democracy.

That may sound dramatic, but it is entirely true. And there has been no point in our recent history when the distribution of trusted news was so important as it is now.

Live: Latest updates on coronavirus for Oxfordshire

Some of you reading this may have been employed by Oxfordshire businesses, many of you would have purchased their goods and services.

Just as they’ve helped you and us through the years, now is the time to help them.

We often hear that we are losing our sense of community. Issues such as Brexit have proved incredibly divisive and it feels like the country has spent the last three years arguing.

Many of us live in an echo-chamber on social media; cancel culture has become the norm. Don't like someone else's opinion? They're wrong, you're right, shout at them through the abyss of social media and heighten their anxiety.

But now is the time for community. Now is the time for compassion. Now is the time, truly, to be a 'big society.'

We must cast all differences aside and say to each other 'I am here for you.'

We hope you will join us in sharing this message of support to local business. Please show your support by using #StillopeninOxfordshire #ThereWithYou