A SOUTHAMPTON charity that’s celebrating its 30th anniversary this year has launched a search to find as many people as possible who were there when it began in 1991.

Communicare, which is working towards eradicating isolation and loneliness in the city, wants to hear from anyone who may have been involved with the organisation from its inception.

Manager, Annie Clewlow, who started working with the charity in 2008, says: “We’ve just a small handful of supporters and volunteers that we know about who were in it from the beginning.

“As we don’t have many official records from those early days, we don’t know about many others who were involved, and we’d like to hear from them. Then we can include them, if they wish, in our plans for our 30th anniversary celebrations.”

One of those who remembers the start is Margaret Timewell, aged 90. Margaret, who helped found the charity, and her husband Trevor, also 90, are now recipients of its services and are assisted by two Communicare volunteers, known as Communiteers.

Annie continues: “Margaret was not only there in the 1990s, and is one of our remaining surviving early members, but she has been an amazing ongoing source of inspiration and support to us ever since. It took lots of people in the early days to help lay the foundations to allow us to achieve the milestone we’re celebrating this year.”

Communicare, which is a friendly, neighbourhood charity, provides services that enrich the lives of lonely and isolated people in and around Southampton. These services are staffed by its committed, kind-hearted Communiteers, who volunteer and give their time freely.

The original feasibility study group included Margaret’s daughter, Jo Timewell, who was a social worker, Shirley Baptist Church’s Reverend Michael Banfield and Assistant Minister, Rev Craig Millward, Muriel Ennals, a retired social worker and Betty Knox OBE, a retired midwife.

Margaret says: “I managed a small committee of around 60 to 70 helpers, and we would assist people with decorating, gardening, shopping, and so on. Through this help we provided valuable socialisation opportunities for them too.”

The services Communicare provides are free to users, although beneficiaries are invited to make a donation if able to.