Coronavirus in Scotland: Glenrothes friendship group goes digital during to combat isolation during pandemic

The cabin, which is based in Woodside, is an adult day service run by volunteers and offers a wide range of social, intellectual and physical activities which helps improve members quality of life and promote independence, health and wellbeing.

With most members shielding or social-isolating the group has come up with new ways to connect with one another.

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Roger Wilks, trustee and treasurer said: “Up until Covid hit in March, we operated on three days at three different locations and we provided our members with mental and physical activities and a warm lunch.

"At the start of lockdown, we closed our doors to protect our members as most of them are seniors and had to shield themselves from the virus.

"In order to keep everyone together our lead volunteer and founder Pearl Weepers had the idea to use tablets and laptops to keep our members connected through online Zoom calls.

"Some of our members already had laptops or tablets but some didn’t, we approached Amazon to see if it could help provide our members with tablets to ensure that they weren’t left isolated, which they kindly did.”

The group now meets online every Tuesday and Thursday and offers a range of different activities for its members.

"As a way of relieving the boredom of being stuck in the house we have had singers from Scotland, India and Australia join us on our Zoom calls,” Roger adds.

"We have also been holding quizzes and we have an opportunity to chat to one another as well.

"Our members have also formed a choir over Zoom and will be holding a concert at the end of the year which will hopefully be broadcast on Radio Scotland.

"The British Red Cross have also very kindly donated mp3 players and pedometers to the group as a further way to keep our members occupied and active throughout the day.

"It has been hard work but it has been worth it, the members really enjoy everything that we have been doing in an effort to keep everyone connected.”

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