Spring is in the air and lawyers from Lodders Solicitors in Stratford-upon-Avon are blowing kisses.
But actually this is nothing to do with young love and everything to do with brightening up the lives of the elderly.
Under the umbrella of Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival, which runs from April 22-28, members of the Lodders team will be visiting care homes to read to senior citizens. And it is all linked to a remarkable organisation, Kissing it Better, who encourage people to commit to the little things that make the world of difference to healthcare.
The Telling Tales Project, part of the festival, is being run in partnership with Kissing it Better.
Sofia Tayton, an associate in the Private Client Department, is behind the Lodders’ initiative.
She heads the firm’s Stratford-upon-Avon Care and Capacity Team, specialising in matters such as care funding, mental capacity, Court of Protection and powers of attorney.
Joint regional co-ordinator of the Warwickshire and Worcestershire branch of the Solicitors for the Elderly, she is also on the Office of the Public Guardian’s Panel of Deputies.
Ms Tayton said: “When as a lawyer you specialise in the needs of the elderly for your livelihood it is important that you give something back.
“Reading to the elderly is fulfilling, something they very much enjoy and links in perfectly with the literary festival.”
Kissing it Better seeks to address things like good communication, appetising food, comfort and surroundings. It focuses on the practical concerns of patients and carers.
It operates such diverse schemes as an Art Cart Programme at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and the Nintendo Wii Challenge at the Helen Ley Care Centre in Warwickshire.
The charity was founded by nurse turned broadcaster Jill Fraser and Nicola Matthews, a nurse and midwife from Warwickshire who is now a lecturer in health and social care.
