Local photographer, Jon Clifton, has been busy designing a new calendar ready for 2024. Featuring stunning photographs of sunsets taken at renown beauty spots along our coastline, some of the photos are instantly recognisable.

Individual dates are boxed with plenty of space to write those all important birthdays and anniversaries. The calendar is spiral wired bound, A3 in size when opened.

Calendars will be signed on the reverse and orders hand packed at his home in Snettisham, West Norfolk.

Jon has committed to donating £1.50 from the sale of each calendar to a number of local charities. West Norfolk Befriending is one of the chosen charities. When buying, the purchaser can pick their preferred charity from the list. If you would like to pre-order one of these beautiful calendars and help raise funds for WNB along the way then click on the link below. The calendars cost £12.99 including postage to UK addresses. Delivery is expected to start in September.

To place an order or for more information go to www.joncliftonphotography.com and click on the Shop tab.

Last week we celebrated our 20th Anniversary with an event at Thaxter’s Coffee Shop. We invited our volunteers and clients to celebrate with us along with members from our board of Trustees. Our guest of honour was the Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk, Kathryn Buscall who stepped in to represent our Patron, Lady Dannat, Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk. She made a speech about the importance of combating loneliness and commented ““I had a wonderful time on Tuesday and couldn’t have been more pleased to meet you all”. Our chairman stated in his speech that over the 20 years West Norfolk Befriending has been offering the befriending service we have helped over 2000 isolated older people.

Thaxter’s Coffee Shop did a wonderful job of providing sandwiches, cakes, scones and refreshments to everyone. We also had a special commemorative cake made by Val Gooding of King’s Lynn Sugar Craft group which the Deputy Lieutenant kindly agreed to cut with the help of one of our past clients.

It was an afternoon spent with much warmth and conversation. It was good to see so many of our volunteers and clients having fun.

James Wild completed the London marathon in a time 3hrs 37mins 15s. He was officially England’s 2nd fastest MP in the race!  At the last count he has raised £1132.50 so far for West Norfolk Befriending. This will go a long way to help keeping our services going.

James Wild, MP for North West Norfolk has chosen West Norfolk Befriending to be one of the three local West Norfolk charities he raises money for when he runs the London Marathon on Sunday October 2nd 2022.

James previously ran the Marathon in 2021 and says “After last year’s race I said I wouldn’t run the marathon again but the opportunity to raise funds to support brilliant local charities was too good to pass up. During training sessions and on race day, the motivation of helping charities supporting women and children affected by domestic abuse, tackling loneliness, and helping deaf and hard of hearing people will drive me on“

James was the fastest English MP to run the Marathon in 2021, and is aiming to complete the course in 3 hours 30 minutes at his second attempt.

West Norfolk Befriending’s CEO Pippa May says “West Norfolk Befriending is delighted that James has chosen to support them. It will mean that we can work with more isolated older people in West Norfolk. West Norfolk Befriending are particularly pleased to be chosen, as this year they are celebrating 20 years of working with isolated older people and their carers in West Norfolk.“

We wish James a safe and speedy run, and thank him for his generous support.

James is also raising money for West Norfolk Deaf Association and Pandora Project, who help women and children affected by domestic abuse.

West Norfolk Befriending is delighted to announce that it was awarded the Befriending Networks – Quality In Befriending mark.

West Norfolk Befriending (WNB) delivers a befriending service to isolated older people and their family carers in person or by telephone across West Norfolk. It is a small local charity supporting the community of West Norfolk.

To gain the Quality In Befriending award, WNB had to be able to demonstrate that it satisfactorily meets the requirements of 61 quality indicators. These cover 7 general areas of practice:

1) the way in which the service is organised, funded and promoted;

2) its policies and procedures;

3) the management of staff;

4) how the service is monitored and evaluated;

5) the clients’ journey;

6) the befrienders’ journey; and

7) the ways in which the befriending relationship is prepared and supported from matching to ending.

Chief Executive Pippa May said “This is an important achievement that confirms the quality of service that West Norfolk Befriending consistently is able to offer.”

“The Board of Trustees was extremely pleased to learn of the award of this prestigious quality mark – not only does it recognise the effectiveness and quality of the service provided by West Norfolk Befriending, it also reflects the effort, support and dedication of all our volunteers and staff.” Alan Hayes, Chair of the Board of Trustees.

WNB has a consistent record of holding a quality mark for the last 14 years.

Last week, we held our AGM. Our Board of Trustees, staff and volunteers came together to review the year, approve the accounts and elect and re-elect members of the board. It was lovely to meet in person (with cake!) after two years of virtual AGM’s on zoom.

We’re delighted to present our Annual Report for this 2021 – 2022 year.

We are delighted to have been awarded funding to explore wills and legacy fundraising at West Norfolk Befriending. This would be a new source of funding for us and would help to ensure the longevity of the charity. It would help the financial sustainability of our work supporting socially isolated older people.

Through this project we will work with a fundraising consultant, connect with local businesses and engage the community. Supported by Norfolk Community Foundation through Your Big Idea.

For the first time since the pandemic we gathered clients, volunteers, staff and trustees together to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.

It was a lovely day, the music was lovely and what a nice room!

A client

Thank you to the Norfolk Community Foundation for supporting this event through the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Fund. Thankyou to the The Filling Station for the yummy sandwiches, scones and cakes. We were treated to a wonderful performance by Heacham Songsters with lots of opportunity to sing along.

So many of our volunteers helped with giving lifts, making tea and setting up and packing up the hall – we couldn’t have done it without you, thank you!

Thankyou to Your Local Paper for some lovely photos and write up. We’re already looking forward to our next event!

Recently, Pippa May, West Norfolk Befriending’s Chief Executive was delighted to attend the weekly session of Heacham Songsters and be presented with a cheque for £300. This donation will be used towards our next social event for all our isolated clients.

We are always delighted when a local group has raised money to support our vital work with socially isolated older people and their unpaid family carers.

The Heacham Songsters are Back in Business

For many years the Heacham Songsters have been presenting concerts to local community groups in and around the area, including residential establishments etc with any donations handed at year end to local charities.  We were not functioning during the covid pandemic but now we are raring and ready to go again. If your local community group etc would like us to present a concert for you, please telephone Peter Francis on 01485 534031.  Please leave a message if there is no answer.

December is always a busy month for us here at West Norfolk Befriending. Here’s a little round up of what we’ve been up to for Christmas this year.

Thankyou to our super volunteer Dot and her grandson Ben who decorated our tree in the Dersingham Christmas Tree Festival – we love the homemade decorations and look at that star! The festival was at St Nicholas’ Church from 3rd to 23rd December.

We received 70 handmade & finely decorated Christmas cakes generously donated by our friends & supporters at King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club. We have now personally delivered a cake and other goodies to each of our clients – it’s a huge job and one we love! There’s even more photos of the cakes in this Lynn News article.

We were delighted to be able to have a small Covid-safe volunteer meeting. It was lovely to see each other and celebrate a successful year of befriending. Our volunteers have been making doorstop deliveries to our clients. They received a christmas cake (donated by King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club), packet of tea (donated by Morrisons King’s Lynn), mince pies, crackers and biscuits (donated by King’s Lynn Tesco), puzzle book, small tin of shortbread, pen and notepad from Lily.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022.