For Coronavirus help and advice, please contact your registered GP surgery by telephone.

15^th June 2020

While the Covid-19 pandemic has continued we, at KingsCare, have continued to work hard to support people affected by social isolation and do our best to help where we can in whatever way we can.

As many of our volunteers had to socially isolate themselves, an army of new volunteers came forward to help us to process many requests for help with shopping. At the last count we have helped 86 different people to get their groceries, made 364 trips to supermarkets and processed over £11,000 worth of goods. A fantastic achievement and one that has been much appreciated by those who couldn’t get out to get it themselves. Sadly for us but a huge relief to them, several of our new volunteers have now returned to work. The requests for shopping are starting to slow down and, luckily, other volunteers have come forward to help so we will continue to offer this service for as long as it is needed. This also applies to the very busy prescription delivery service that we have been organising with the help of one volunteer in particular without whom it wouldn’t have been possible.

By the end of May we had helped to deliver 2,390 meals to housebound residents of Kingsteignton and 240 to the hard working staff on the Covid ward at Torbay. This has been made possible by us teaming up with the Old Rydon Inn and has been supported by Devon County Council, Kingsteignton Town Council and through contributions from those receiving the meals, their families and friends. 

Newton Abbot Rotary has supported us by paying for a 3 month licence for Zoom, the on-line conference facility. This means that, not only have we been able to meet up whilst still at home, but we have also been able to hold meetings with carers to give them some face-to-face support from the safety of their homes. Briony has also started a HOPE course with some of her clients. We appreciate that not everyone can join an on-line group but we have been delighted by the number who have been able to. For those who can’t we’ve continued with regular phone calls to keep in touch and provide help and advice where needed. Growing pots have also been delivered to clients to help raise their spirits by having something different to care for.

The Hub shop is still closed but two of our volunteers continue to put books, DVDs and jigsaws in the window with a phone number – 07557 379163 – to ring if you see anything you want. Paperbacks and low cost items are placed outside on fine days with a request that money is put in an envelope through the door. We are hoping to re-open by mid-July for 2 days a week and a huge amount of work is going on in the background to make this happen. By the time we’ve laid the 2 metre distance tape, the social distance guideline will probably have brought it down to 1 metre! Teignbridge District Council has given us a green wheelie bin into which donations can be put. The bin will then be wheeled down to the garage and the contents dated and left for 72 hours before being handled to minimise any chance of infection. Other rules will be displayed at the shop.

Worried about benefits? Rosemary Newman’s volunteers are still helping people to get their applications completed so don’t hesitate to call the office if you want help in this area.

If we aren’t able to support you we can make referrals to another voluntary group that can, just ask.

We put out a plea for people to nominate us for a chance to be chosen to receive a grant from the Movement for Good. Thank you all who nominated us. We received the grant with which we have purchased little bottles of hand sanitiser wearing our contact details. We have also received donations from Tesco’s Bags of Help, the NFU, Neighbourly, Kingsteignton Town Council, Devon County Council and the Austin Hope Pilkington Trust. All these grants and donations have helped us to redesign our services to meet the demands produced by the crisis and we’re extremely grateful to them all.

We are thinking hard about how to get back to some sort of normal and will keep updating the website at every stage.

Any questions please ring the office on 01626 357090. It continues to be manned every weekday.