Crafts are helping to break the “isolation” of some elderly people in Romford through a weekly group at the Salvation Army.

Martie van Deventer, who runs the group at the High Street premises said: “I was just seeing that so many people were so lonely and they were so isolated.”

She said the idea came when she successfully used knitting with two of her friends’ elderly mothers to draw them out of isolation.

One of them had not been out of her house in a year.

The group now has around 24 people who knit, crochet and do a range of other crafts, inlcuding making dolls and lavender-filled bags.

The group will have an exhibition at the Salvation Army on Romford’s High Street on July 1 and 2 to raise awareness and to get more members.