Ahead of Silver Sunday, a fabulous event to celebrate and bring together older people, Cllr Rachael Robathan caught up with its founder, Christabel Flight.
"This Sunday, the first Sunday in October is Silver Sunday, a really important initiative to help older people in in Westminster to come together, realise they're part of the community, but also to have fun, to realise how valued they are.
"And this was the initiative and brainchild of former Westminster Conservative councillor Christabel Flight, and she continues to drive this forward.
"And I'm delighted that today I'm joined by Christabel Flight here in Westminster. Christabel, tell us a little bit about why you set up Silver Sunday?"
"Well, when I became a councillor, which was 17 years ago, the one thing I wanted to do and actually said at my interview was they said ‘what you want to do?’
"And I said, ‘I want to do something about the loneliness of old people because so many older people are really isolated and lonely.’ "And I think actually that got me the job really! "And what have been some of the highlights of Silver Sunday and this initiative?
"The first thing I did, I went to see Simon Milton and I said I wanted to put on a tea dance. I'd had the opportunity of working with The Great Room at the Grosvenor and I went to see the person there, and I said, ‘Would he be prepared to put on a free tea dance for a thousand Westminster residents aged 65 plus?’
"And to my surprise, he was very fond of his mother and he said yes immediately. He said, ‘yes, I think that's a brilliant idea, just being brilliant’. Now it's it's on its 17th year now. "Oh, fantastic. So how can people find out what's going on on Silver Sunday and sign up to get involved?
"Well, it's you can look online, SilverSunday.org.uk.
"Also, there's something called Westminster Plus which gets sent to every Westminster resident and they can then go through it and there's telephone numbers and emails where they can apply to go to all this. There are some wonderful things, you know, from Buckingham Palace to teas, lunches to all sorts of dancing, the whole works. I mean, there are 70 events in Westminster, so if you can't find something out of 70 events, you're doing really badly!"
"Christabel, it’s bought such joy to so many older people in Westminster, and it's an absolute brilliant initiative to have set up. Thank you Christabel Flight."
