Ron’s story

Ron lives in Clacton-on-Sea with his wife Angela. He lives with many health challenges, including angina, diabetes, coronary heart disease, depression, and chronic back pain. This means he is unable to carry out daily living tasks without supervision. Angela provides Ron with the support he needs but doing it alone sometimes impacts Angela’s wellbeing. ‘He wakes in the night in pain and finds most days a struggle. It makes us both feel quite low.’ Ron and Angela heard about the work we do and attended one of our local community talks. They initially asked Jo, our support adviser for advice about writing a will but after some additional questions and conversation, Jo was able to signpost the couple to a local solicitor’s free wills service and offer them support to apply for the government granted Attendance Allowance. We also provided advice about equipment that could help with Ron’s daily personal care so that he can live more independently. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I was awarded a higher rate Attendance Allowance which was backdated to 2019.’ ‘We are delighted with the help we’ve had from Age Concern; things are looking much better for us now and we feel more positive. We’ve even got a new chair for Ron which really helps him and have got lots of extra bathroom equipment to help him and for getting in and out of bed too. All of it has made a huge difference to us both. We could not have done this without your help.’