A dementia-friendly sports club aimed at tackling loneliness among elderly people has launched.

In the second of our series of articles on Our Golden Generation, reporter Temi Adedeji found out more.

Sport England has awarded Medway Council £9,800 to fund a special scheme at Strood Sports Centre.

Sessions run every Monday from 11am to 1pm, with the aim of getting older people more active as well as giving them new opportunities to socialise. The timetable for senior sports sessions can be found on Medway Council's website.

The authority's deputy leader Cllr Howard Doe said: "What we're doing here is starting a new sport memory group to take root in Medway.

"What we're trying to do is tackle social isolation and to make people feel, though they are older, they still have a lot to contribute to society and we want to get them back in.

"There's a really good opportunity there for them to enjoy the session, where they feel easy and can do a little bit of light exercise which makes them more resistant to the illness which they may already have.

"We want to show them that they have value as residents of Medway and that we want them to start forming new friendships.

"We want to get them going again after a long winter of Covid – everyone's been pretty shut in really, and getting fed-up with themselves.

"That's the whole message, to get people active again and get them going and make sure they all have a really good time.

"I think it's very encouraging. We've only just started this and it might have been very hard to get it going, but it isn't. It shows a demand for it.

"I am pleased we have been awarded funding from Sport England to launch this new club.

"We know through the pandemic many older residents may have been shielding and we hope the Sporting Memories club will encourage them to become more active and reduce loneliness.

"I would encourage residents to go along to the club to find out more."

Some of the activities people can try include badminton, table tennis and bowls.

Simon Puttock, 59, a fitness trainer at Strood Sports Centre, said: "As we get older we need to exercise, we need to increase flexibility, balance especially.

"Those are the two things which go down as you get older. By compacting both of these, you're strengthening bones, helping the heart and the health benefits are endless.

"It's something we should all be doing, we're all going to get there [old age]; it should be an ongoing thing.

"With Covid, when everyone was locked up, the number of people with dementia increased because people weren't socialising, so these clubs are ideal for that."

Samantha Villanueva, 49, is activities co-ordinator at Amherst Court care home in Chatham. She helps to bring people to the sessions, she said: "These events really help because after Covid, residents were really frightened and they couldn't get out.

"We still have to be very careful in the care home because people are vulnerable.

"Now everything is slowing down, we need places like this so they can get their faith back and not be scared when they are going out and for the community to support the seniors in this transition, because it is still something which affects their lives."

Pam Bessell is 78 and loves to swim and play badminton. She said: "I came along to see older folk like myself. I still enjoy sport and hope that they still enjoy sport as well.

"It was an ideal opportunity to come along and see what was happening, because a lot of able-bodied elderly people don't come along to these things.

"It's been fun, getting to know people, talking to them, finding out what they are like, and dislikes are.

"I had a good go at badminton. They were a bit nervous to start off with, but they really seem to enjoy it.

"If you don't use it, you lose it. I found that teaching the elderly swimming works wonders."

Pam said she empathises with some of the lonely times older people go through. She said: "I have that problem, no one to walk with sometimes, then I ring up one of my friends and say 'do you want to come along for a walk?'

"The elderly need younger people as well in their lives, rather than the elderly always being with the elderly, because it can be daunting at times.

"So if you have younger people in your life, like the carers and the people helping them, it's much better.

"Keeping active, keeping focused, finding something to do every day, rather than sitting in and watching boring television, and even if you're doing just a little bit of gardening, or a little bit of talking to your neighbours, or inviting someone over for a cup of coffee, just keeping busy."

Simon Mclean, 50, is care operations manager for Avante care and support which looks after more than 1,000 older people through registered nursing and dementia care homes. He said:"As an organisation I think it's really important that we engage with our local communities.

"With Avante we've been able to support today by bringing some residents and our teams to support Sporting Memories club, so we're really happy about that.

"The long-term goal for us is to be part of the local communities, bringing people back out of our services, that after pre-Covid were really important.

"And for that to have a good well-being and a healthy happy lifestyle."

In yesterday's golden generation feature, we explored what it was like to live with dementia.