GRAYS-based Bright & Beautiful, an ethical and eco-friendly professional housekeeping franchise business, celebrated Christmas early this year by hosting a party to bring its elderly clients together to help reduce their social isolation and loneliness.

Together with volunteers from locally-based charity Re-engage (formerly Contact the Elderly) guests were invited to the Beehive Community Resource Centre in Grays to enjoy an afternoon of festivities - a sumptuous tea, gifts and entertainment from a couple of talented singers - Hollie-Blue and Richard Gillbody.

A number of local businesses also donated gifts in a free raffle, including Five Star Cleaning, RLS Plumbing & Heating Services, Glass Rooms and The Rectory.

Building on the success of a previous tea party held in the spring, Niamh Wakeling, business owner of Bright & Beautiful, wanted to organise a similar event and widen the guest list to include other elderly people in the local community.

Overwhelmed with emotion, she said: "Christmas should be a time of joy, but if you are older, isolated and living on your own, it can be difficult to get out and about to meet people. It was this exact reason that I arranged a Christmas party to show gratitude and support to those who don't have the chance to socialise often.

"I would like to thank everyone, including my staff, who helped make our Christmas party so magical and for all the generous donations we received. An extended thank you also to May's Catering Company in Purfleet who made a fantastic spread of food. It was a wonderful afternoon and we will definitely look to organise similar gatherings in 2020 after seeing how much joy they took from this get-together."

Loraine Coleman, Area Co-ordinator and Volunteer for Re-engage Thurrock, added: "Everyone had such a lovely time at the Bright & Beautiful Christmas party and these types of events mean the world to the elderly as it gives them a chance to get into the community spirit and mix with people of their own age.

!Every Sunday we organise group gatherings so this party was an extra bonus for our guests – I will be meeting up with Niamh in the new year to see what other events we can do together."

Celebrating five years of business in October, Niamh now employs 16 trusted housekeepers from the local area and they provide a service that offers eco-friendly cleaning, tidying, laundry and ironing to a consistently high standard. The business delivers more than 1,000 hours of professional housekeeping per month.

For further information about Bright & Beautiful and the services it can offer, visit www.brightandbeautifulhome.com/grays/ or call 01375 800684.