Volunteers - including local residents and retailers - in Market Lavington have mobilised once more to support their community.
Last March, Suzanne Morrison created a Facebook group with a call-out for help ahead of a looming lockdown announcement.
She took her son to a physio appointment, and expected to come back to perhaps a handful of sign-ups.
She got home and made a coffee, and was shocked to see that 80 people had already got in touch to volunteer.
She said: “No-one knew what was coming or how long we’d have to work for.
“By the time lockdown was imposed I was shielding due to a lung condition, so my thanks goes out to the volunteers on the ground who are doing amazing things. We hit the ground running here in Market Lavington.
“We have a man who jumps on his bike to deliver prescriptions to Little Cheverell, and we make sure to not forget the surrounding villages.
“It’s a collaborative effort from the village; from the chemist, the GP surgery, the butchers, from Nicky and the Green Dragon.
"That’s just how the village is. Carol Hackett from the Parish Council has been brilliant at the clerical aspect and making sure everything is official and done sensibly.”
The support in Market Lavington has reached people across the globe. The response group has had messages from people as far as Los Angeles and New Zealand asking for updates or to check-in with relatives or friends.
Suzanne added: “We’ve kept going because our village needs us. And we’ll keep going as long as we do. We never shut down, we’ve just shifted depending on demand.
“The isolation factor is the problem now, it’s amazing what a simple chat on the phone can do. And it’s not just the older generation, we need to think about the younger people as well who can be really struggling right now.”
Nicky Wragg, of the Green Dragon pub, got on board with the response group from the outset of the pandemic, and one of her first jobs was to deliver bread to a man in the village.
She said: "A lot of people have found their own support bubbles by this lockdown, but we want to get across that we're here for anyone at all that needs it.
"Everyone has banded together and that's just how Market Lavington is. It's the best village in the world."
Dominic Muns, Conservative candidate for The Lavingtons, said:“Market Lavington is a very close-knit community and the spirit with which residents have pulled together is inspiring.
"Along with my fellow Parish Councillors we set up a similar group to support residents across West Lavington and Littleton Panell because it is vital that our rural communities support each other.
"With an ageing population nationally and a need for so many of our residents to isolate our communities have to rely on volunteers.
"I hope that the hard work of all our volunteers continues and our support groups grow in numbers. Society functions better when those less able to support themselves can rely on the help of those who are more able.”
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