Hartlepool's isolated adult carers are getting even more support from a town group

The gift, which contains art materials, dominoes, draughts and cards, is being supplied by the Hartlepool Carers group.

It comes on top of the hundreds of packs which are already being delivered to the town’s young carers, some as young as five.

Chief executive Christine Fewster said: “Packs will include items such as Grow your own herb garden, art materials, games such as dominoes, chess, draughts, cards as well as resources to support physical and mental health.

“We want to ensure everyone remains connected in our town and encourage everyone to join us on our social media groups to take up challenges from the activity packs, joining us for family quiz sessions, low impact exercise classes and our weekly Care for a Cuppa session.”

The Hartlepool Mail told earlier this month how more than 12,000 carers were looking after loved ones during the lockdown.

Since lockdown started, more than 100 people have registered with Hartlepool Carers.

It has launched its ‘Care for a Cuppa’ virtual weekly get-together every Wednesday at 10am, available by visiting the Hartlepool Carers Facebook page.

Christine added: “We received funding for young carers and children with additional needs and disabilities to receive activity packs.

“That included lots of resources from outside games, art and crafts, health and wellbeing resources and of course plant your own sunflower!

“We have distributed to nearly 200 homes, helping over 450 children and young people. We are continuing to deliver even more across the town.

“We are delighted to receive support from County Durham Community Foundation to now distribute activity packs for adult carers who are isolating, providing essential care to loved ones.

“We are also continuing to register new carers, deliver emergency food parcels across the town, ensure families have essentials such as gas/electricity and we make contact with over 400 families each week to ensure everyone has support throughout the pandemic.”

For more information about Hartlepool Carers, call (01429) 283095.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you