Ninety-four year old Sylvia has a message for her volunteer befriender Jean: “I love you Jeanie!” she says. 

The pair have been talking every week for two years thanks to the CallER Collective service, which is run by HEY Smile Foundation.

Jean has called Sylvia around 100 times, spending around 50 hours on the phone with the former Land Girl who lives by herself in Wawne.

Sylvia said: “I don’t think of Jeanie as a volunteer befriender, I think of her as my friend Jeanie. I look forward to her call every week. She makes me laugh, she reads me stories, and poems and we talk about our lives. She really is very special to me.”

Sylvia’s said that she was referred to the service when she became unwell, and that Jean helped her get her life back on track.

CallER Collective was established in response to the Covid-19 outbreak during the first UK-wide Lockdown in March 2020. It quickly became apparent that the befriending support that was offered, was missing as a service in the East Riding.