If you live on your own – and you don’t have friends or family popping in from time to time– spending most or all of your time at home by yourself can make you feel cut off from the rest of the world. There’s no need to feel lonely. Our free telephone befriending service is available to anyone who has worked in the pub trade for five years or longer. So if you’d like one of our volunteers to call you for a regular chat, just give us a call 01344 898550.

John ran The Cherry Tree in Temple Meads, Bristol, for 28 years until he retired at the age of 64. He missed the company that running a pub gave him, and after his wife Joan died was alone.

John enjoyed a weekly phone call from his Licensed Trade Charity befriender, and said that having a friendly person call him regularly was “marvellous”:

“If I’m down in the dumps it bucks me up a bit – it is nice to know someone at the end of the line is thinking of me”.

John’s story is not unusual in the industry, with research revealing that almost 4,500 people who have worked in the licensed drinks trade have identified themselves as “socially isolated”. We encourage licensees to think of former colleagues and friends who may be alone, and to put them in touch with us.