'Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!'

Evocative goodies from summer holiday-times past help anyone lonely and isolated feel cherished...

Time to Talk Befriending, the Brighton and Hove-based charity with its own team of Anna Chaplains, has hit on a great idea to help those isolating and feeling bereft of company to think fondly of good times 'beside the sea'.

Packs are posted to scheme members including all sorts of reminders of seaside treats. It's all intended to evoke happy memories and ensure each person feels remembered and valued. Founder of TTTB and Anna Chaplain, Emily Kenward, says the gift is 'a bag full of sunshine'.

'In light of not being able to host our annual holiday inspired event Holiday at Home, we thought we’d send a little something in the post instead. Okay, so the fish and chip crisps can’t beat the real thing and nothing can replace physically being with friends and meeting new people. But we hope these little packs of holiday-ness blessed our members in some small way'.

Work behind the scenes has included Story Chaplain and Anna Chaplain Charlotte Evans scripting postcard-sized memory triggers such as reminders of what it might have been like eating favourite sweets on the prom. The carefully designed packs have gone down very well with recipients many of whom, a recent Time to Talk survey showed, were still anxious about venturing out and about despite the lifting of many recent Covid-19 restrictions.