• I AM very involved with University of the Third Age in London, the Belsize Park branch of U3A, and you can imagine how devastatingly the Covid-19 pandemic has affected us.

Most, if not all, our members fall into the vulnerable category. Being over 65 years old seems quite young to us and, as for underlying health problems, you name it and we’ve got it, probably many times over!

So when we were told that from March 15 we were to close down Hampstead Town Hall, our social centre for 20 out of our 38 years of existence, we knew that it would mean removing a way of life from those of us who needed it most.

Many of our nearly 2,000 members live alone and quite a few have no near relatives. Isolated at home they would just wither away with loneliness and depression. What to do to help them?

Quickly a team of us got together to make plans. We are fortunate in having many dedicated, brilliant, entrepreneurs on our committee. We found we had a Zoom Queen among us!

She sprang into action and has trained many of our regular group leaders to take their classes online each week. We now have over 82 classes online, which are well attended. There are new ones coming such as Salsalates, a fusion of Pilates exercise, Salsa dancing, and fun!

Zoom knows no geographical boundaries and we have members participating from rural France, Italy and another residing in Israel.

Ever since we closed our doors we have sent out a weekly chatty newsletter to all members who have a computer, telling them what is going on.

We also encourage as many of them as we can to contribute with short articles, jokes and anything that takes their fancy. People keep telling us how much they look forward to receiving it every week.

One of our flagship features was a regular Monday talk from an outside speaker and our Zoom Queen made sure that this would continue – online, of course. Sometimes over 350 people can join the audience.

And what, you may ask, about those who don’t use or have a computer, iPad or smartphone? It may come as a surprise that, in spite of our advanced years, fewer than 150 of our members are not “silver surfers.”

But we haven’t forgotten them either. Each group of four or five has been give a “buddy” to phone them each week and share with them all that is going on.

Actually some good things have emerged from this dire situation. Members who have moved away, and were sad to have left us, now find that they haven’t left us after all! They can participate on Zoom and have been able to come back into the fold.

People who were starting to find the journey to Belsize Park a bit of a problem because of the creakiness that comes with old age, especially when the weather was bad, can now “attend” from the comfort of their own homes.

When we eventually return to “normality” we’ll certainly carry on with zooming. We are even recruiting new members who wouldn’t have been able to get to the town hall and our Monday speakers can now give their talks from anywhere, even from the other side of the world.

Of course, we all miss the very important social side of our organisation, and meeting our friends, but we hope everyone still feels part of our U3A family and we all look forward to meeting again – properly!

AMALIA MICHAELS, U3A