The befriending charity b:friend are hoping their single “Footprints in the Snow”, will raise awareness of loneliness in the elderly this Christmas.

According to Age UK, 1.4 million older people in the UK are often lonely. B:friend’s aim is to reduce loneliness and isolation in the over 65s.

CEO of the charity, Colette Bunker says, “we have about 750 volunteers who pop round to an older neighbours house for a cuppa and a chat to keep them company once a week.

The aim is the create meaningful and long lasting friendships”.

The single has been written by Andrew Bradley, 39, who works as a Pre-Development Engineer for Strata Homes in Doncaster. The company chose B:friend as their charity of the year for 2022, and he was keen to put his 20 years of signwriting skills to use.

He said, “As a writer, I’m always looking for ways to be creative about the approach to songwriting and meaningful approaches that create a reaction in people.

Initially the idea was to do a Christmas carol concert which we decided against so we put forward a song and everyone at b:friend charity engaged with that and really enjoyed it”.

When asked what the hope for the single was he said, “if we can get about 1000 downloads, we might be able to just about crack into the top 40 which we would class as a massive success, and raise near enough 1000 pounds for the charity as well”.

The downloads will be priced at 99p, and Colette Bunker said “of course we need funds to survive as a charity but we’re hoping to spread awareness about loneliness and isolation in the elderly particularly at Christmas time”.

The single will be available to download from 8 December, but the music video is out now and you can watch this below.

You can find out more about b:friend at letsbfriend.org.uk.