Elderly East Preston residents revel at Olympics

WACKY sports and glorious sunshine have helped to bring elderly residents at an East Preston care home out of their shells.

Pensioners from the Green Willow Residential Home, in Vicarage Lane, have been making the most of the recent sunshine to get outdoors and take part in an Olympic Week at the site.

More than a dozen residents, along with staff at Green Willow, competed in the four-day long competition, which finished on Thursday – just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the following day.

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The competitors took part in a range of sports and activities, from the traditional, like skittles and penalty shoot-outs, to the outlandish, like speed dressing competitions and even a game of tiddlywinks.

Sue Shelley, deputy manager at the home, said that everyone had been “blessed” with recent splendid weather.

“We were so lucky with the weather, it was unbelievable. The conditions on Thursday were so warm. It was wonderful,” she said

However, Sue added that the games hadn’t just been about keeping the residents active and entertained.

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She said that the event had managed to entice some residents, who more often than not spend most of the day in their rooms, out and into the garden for the competition.

“Everyone loved it. We have got some residents that are quite adverse to coming out of their rooms – they prefer to be inside by themselves.

“But they were outside, laughing with the rest of them. We even had a 101-year-old take part at one point.

“So, it’s been a massive achievement for us to get them out and socialising,” Sue said.

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Sue explained that staff at the home had been inspired by this year’s London 2012 Olympic Games and that they wanted to set up their own event to bring out the sporting spirit in some of the residents.

“We thought it would be quite nice to start our own Olympics. To begin with, we were only going to do a few games indoors because the weather had been pretty nasty up until then.

“So we kept thinking of different games that our residents could do, that wouldn’t been too difficult for them.

“That’s where it all came from, I guess,” Sue said.

The next event at the home will be a pyjama party, later this month.

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