MORE than 70 lonely residents in the borough who have missed out on regular social meetings organised by the charity Re-engage Thurrock have been treated to a luxury hamper so they know they are not forgotten.

Re-engage organised regular tea parties for groups of borough residents as a way of breaking the cycle of isolation, but because of the coronavirus pandemic this has not been possible.

However, organiser Loraine Coleman explains they may not be able to meet up, but the charity is still caring for residents. She says: "We have had to cancel all our tea parties and our summer outing and we wanted to make up for this and to let our special tea party guests know that we are always thinking of them.

"A big thank you to our fabulous volunteers for distributing the hampers ensuring social distancing while having a long awaited chat with our guests.

"And also to our lovely volunteer host Nilopher Quamer from TeaLightful for preparing more than 70 luxury hampers, Nathan for the Re-engage mugs, Clarissa for organising the luxury cup cakes from Crumb-didili-yum, Courtney-Lee Collins for donating personal care products and chocolates, Maggie for the handmade goody bags and chocs and shopping relieving the local stores of their stock of Prosecco for our lady guests, Ros for the personal letters to our guests and Alan for donating the beer for our gentlemen guests.

"The biggest thank you to all our fabulous volunteers, friends, local businesses and community groups for their huge generosity enabling us to be able to treat our guests. A precious day to treasure with wonderful memories."