A CHARITY that serves older people in East Lancashire has launched a £50,000 appeal to save its advice and information service.

Age UK Blackburn with Darwen celebrated its 40th birthday this week and started the appeal at Hopwood Court Day Care Centre in Blackburn.

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Chief executive Vicky Shepherd said the money was needed to pay for trained advisors that keep the service running.

She said: “We rely on fundraising and donations to keep our services going.

“Our advice and information service provides older people with somewhere they can go to talk about anything that may be troubling them and affecting their quality of life such as finance or housing or technology confusion.

“It’s a core service and means a lot to lots of people, we have increasing demand for it all the time.

“We want to continue to deliver this service efficiently so we have a target of £50,000 which will pay for trained advisors.

“We had a superb day at Hopwood Court with lots of people sharing what Age UK means to them.”

Last year just under 7,000 enquiries from older people were received by Age UK’s advice and information service.

At the Hopwood Court celebration a number of organisations who have worked with the charity attended including Blackburn with Darwen Council and the borough’s clinical commissioning group.

Westholme School also made an appearance and Santander in Blackburn which had done a number of fundraising events for Age UK.

The mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Cllr Hussain Akhtar was also there to cut the birthday cake.

A montage of people who use Age UK services was played at Hopwood Court which showed them talking about what the service has meant to them.

Cllr Akhtar said: “I was very pleased to be there for the birthday celebration and I am very supportive of the excellent work this charity do for older people.

“I wish them all the bestfor the next 40 years.”