For most people, the police are your first port of call in an emergency.
But what if your need doesn’t quite justify the blues and twos? What if you’re in your 90s and just want someone to chat with?
One Chester PCSO proved that police officers do more than fight crime to serve our communities on Wednesday (November 18).
A 91-year-old woman from the Garden Quarter called the police and told them she was lonely.
PCSO Kurt Lockem, the attending officer, told the Chronicle: “The call came over the radio asking if anyone could attend a welfare check on an elderly woman who said she was lonely and had no-one to speak to.
“She was quite anxious when I arrived, she was glad to see me.”
PCSO Lockem, who came to England from South Africa 10 years ago and has worked as a police community support officer for the past three years, explained that the woman had ‘got herself in a bit of a muddle’ and managed to trip her electricity.
After he managed to get it working again, he stayed for a while to chat and they looked through her paintings of Foregate Street together.
PCSO Lockem revealed they occasionally receive such calls.
“Sometimes it’s the only contact that people have with the outside world,” he said.
“There are a lot of people who do not have friends or family.
“We don’t just fight crime.”
Do you know an organisation that helps lonely elderly people in Chester? Tell us in the comments box below:
