The Spirit of Salford: Two friends from Ordsall support elderly residents during self-isolation

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has worsened, many people across our neighbourhoods have been displaying the Spirit of Salford, by stepping forward to help older and more vulnerable people in our community.

Two of these people are Dana Wrigley and Lindsey Bester from Ordsall. They were recently shopping in their local Sainsbury’s when they noticed an elderly man struggling to find anything to fill his basket with.

As news spread of lockdowns within Europe, people had rushed to the shops to fill their own trollies, and left the aisles stripped bare for others. This included this older man, who was trying and failing to do his weekly shop.

Dana and Lindsey started to chat to him and offered to do his shopping for him once the store had been restocked in the evening. They took his address from him and found out that he lived in Queen Alexander Gardens, one of our sheltered schemes. They later went and dropped off supplies for him.

As elderly people were starting to be encouraged to self-isolate, Dana and Lindsey knew other people living in the sheltered scheme would be struggling to get their shopping.

After asking for donations on Facebook, they were flooded with offers of food and supplies for the residents of Queen Alex Gardens.

Thanks to the generosity of their neighbours and the amount of donated goods, the friends had been able to make two drop offs a week to the scheme.

They’re hoping to continue to their good work, once they’ve worked out how to do it in line with new government advice.

Dana and Lindsey’s act of kindness is just one example of the Spirit of Salford. Scores of local people have been donating their time and resources to help vulnerable people in their communities. Find out more how you can help by visiting Salford CVS’s How to be a Good Neighbour in Salford webpage.