DURING Volunteer Week the Times is highlighting the valuable but unpaid work carried out by unsung heroes of our community.

One of these people is Bryan Podmore who has been key in alleviating loneliness in Horrabridge where he organises a weekly lunch club called the ‘Pop-Inn’.

Most of the people who attend, do so to meet other people and sometimes newly discover their neighbours who they might have lost contact with over the years.

Bryan said: ‘I’ve been doing this for 23 years having only been planning to stand in for two or three months. But I do love doing it. It’s so rewarding to help mainly older people make friends or renew friends and really enjoy themselves.

‘They are brought in by the TASS (Tavistock Area Support Services) mini-bus if they have mobility problems or are remote on the moors and don’t have public transport.

‘We offer them homemade soup and hot drinks and cake made by the village bakers Honeys for a small fee. The volunteers do all the kitchen work and serving and I help make it happen. But it’s the people who come who decide what happens. If they ask me to include something I will ask the others what they think.’

The Pop-Inn has regular outings and guests like the police who sit down with residents to discuss matters of concern.

Bryan said: ‘I really understand the problems of loneliness and isolation of people living on their own or remotely. They soon make friends and chat away.

‘When they go on our bus trips, they get so excited, it’s like a school trip with the laughter and chat. I get a real sense of achievement out of it. Many times it’s to places they’ve only been to many years ago and it’s going back in time in their lives.

‘I was a Met police sergeant before I retired and I came into contact with many people who lived on their own, not necessarily old folk. It can cause social problems.’

Bryan moved to Tavistock and got married and said the town reminded him of the Welsh Valleys where he was brought up.

He said: ‘When I retired I did gardening and cooking, but was soon looking for something useful to do and when there was a centre for volunteers I went and was recruited by the woman who ran TASS who said I could stand in for a short time for two people who were leaving — and I’m still here!’