Man Utd legends Cole, Robson and Pallister reach out to the elderly

With the lockdown in the UK now in its fourth week, the club plan to continue engaging with its elderly and other vulnerable supporters beyond the first wave of calls made so far. “Our outreach needs to be sustained over the course of the coming weeks and months. We realise that we could be in it for the long haul and more support is going to be needed the longer it goes on,“ said Roche.

The outreach programme builds on the club’s support for the #DonateYourWords campaign to combat loneliness among the elderly, together with its partner Cadbury and Age UK. Back in February, United invited a group of elderly fans to be guests of honour at the Watford game as part of the club’s partnership with Cadbury and their #donateyourwords campaign. ‘Donate Your Words’ highlights the issue of loneliness among Britain’s older generation, after research undertaken by Cadbury and Age UK revealed that, in a typical week, almost 2.6million people aged 65 and over speak to three or fewer others, with more than 225,000 often going a week without speaking to anyone.

Robson called on all United fans to do their bit to support elderly and vulnerable members of society during the lockdown: “One of the things that I’ve been most impressed by is the real sense of community amongst our fans. It is clear that they are looking out for each other and I would encourage everyone to do the same.

“If we could all make one call a day to someone we know, just to check in with them and see how they are doing, it will make a huge difference.”