Community support groups in Letchworth and Baldock have been delivering vital support to hundreds of isolated residents during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In Baldock, local volunteers and organisations launched the Baldock Coronavirus Support Group dedicated to helping those in self-isolation with daily tasks, such as grocery shopping and picking up medicines.

Anyone in need of help can contact the group’s hotline on 01462 892838, or email baldockcs0@gmail.com.

More than 120 residents in Baldock are now receiving vital support, from over 90 registered volunteers. The group has also formed dog walking and animal welfare groups, ready to support those who can no longer walk their dogs. Volunteers are also looking at working with mental health organisations over the coming weeks.

Volunteer and contributor Jane – who herself experienced social isolation while recovering from illness a few years ago – said: “I think it’s really important in tough times to share our experiences and suggest ways we can help each other.

“We are stronger together. We are all in very different situations, some living alone, others are at home with loved ones or with flat mates. But what unites most of us is a desire to get through as best we can.”

In Letchworth, the community response service – launched by the Heritage Foundation last month – has also been helping hundreds of isolated residents during this crisis.

The service has received just short of 300 phone calls and emails over the past weeks, with volunteers carrying out more than 130 shopping deliveries, and 23 prescriptions. The group has also dropped off five food parcels collected from the foodbank.

Graham Fisher, chief executive of the Heritage Foundation, said: “Within a week we are already supporting several hundred isolated residents with home deliveries of food and other essentials as well as important information and connections.

“In this short time, we have adapted, responded and come together in isolation in ways which you imagine impossible before coronavirus became a fact of life.

“I am proud of all that the Foundation team has done and will continue to do, however challenging our future may be. We are stronger because of the people we have.”