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Thanks to Roger, Chris and Jan for the warm welcome to Sgt. Pepper’s.  I have felt very alone since my wife passed away and I really struggled through the pandemic.  Through Sgt. Pepper’s I have made so many new friends and started to enjoy my life again and the extra hour each week has made a big difference to me because it’s now almost half a day!  I used to be a semi-professional musician so I look forward to what’s on every week and sometimes see people I used to play alongside.

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I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go to a Friendship Club or what it actually meant.  My neighbour suggested that I go because she’d heard good things about it.  I went the first week that the lunch group started so I was very lucky.  I didn’t expect to get a bacon sandwich on arrival so it was a really nice surprise.  I go nearly every week now and really look forward to it.  The entertainment is so good that I feel like I’m having a night out, even though it’s on a Tuesday morning.

It's a great night out - during the day.

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I have started going to Sgt. Pepper’s in the past few months.  It was difficult for me at first because I’m partially sighted but I met someone who offered to pick me up and take me home which has been fantastic.  He also rings me once a week to check how I am so I feel like I have made a real friend.  I love the live music and the professional entertainment and one day I will take my accordion and surprise everyone. 

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Roger asked me to volunteer in the kitchen when he started the club.  That was when around 20 people came each week.  The numbers have grown and grown and since we got the lottery funding and have provided monthly lunch groups, sometimes we can have up to 80 people come along.  So now there are about four of us who set up in the morning and then around 10 of us when we provide food.  It’s a lot of work but also a lot of fun and we support each other and have a lot of laughs along the way.

I cannot begin to tell you the power of good it's done for me. We have such a laugh with real friends.