'A conversation can really brighten your day'

Users of a "chatter and natter" cafe aimed at supporting people with life's troubles have praised the project as a "massive" help.

The Chatty Cafe in Wybourn, part of a not-for-profit chain, sits in one of Sheffield's most deprived areas, and offers peer-to-peer support, as well as directing people who need help with health, housing or financial concerns to advice services.

Diane Wood, 61, a full-time carer for her husband, is a regular visitor and said the cafe catered for people of all ages and cultures.

She said she was keen to help others needing support, adding: "Coming here, I feel like I've achieved something, I feel loved."

Wood said: "My day-to-day life is caring for my husband.

"I help him cope with the stresses of life, and I come here and join in activities, I'm a very sociable person and I like to greet people with a hug.

"If I couldn't come here I'd not do anything, I'd just be in the house.

"It'd have a lot of effects, I'd just be doing housework."

The Chatty Cafe network began in Greater Manchester in 2017, the brainchild of Alex Hoskyn, a social worker who went through a period of social isolation after having her first child.

The non-profit runs standalone cafes - such as the Wybourn community centre - as well as drop-in meet-ups in established cafes.

Hoskyn was inspired while visiting a cafe full of customers sitting separately.

She said: "I started to think about the positive impact we could have had on each other if we had sat together.

"I know from experience that when you are feeling lonely, a short conversation with another human can really brighten your day and I realised that you can be out of the house all day yet have no interaction with another person."

Another regular face at the Chatty Cafe in Wybourn is Amber Broughton, 30, who said she used the cafe after dropping her children off at school.

She said: "It's a nice way to be involved in everything, find out what's coming up, they do courses, and things for children as there's not a lot to do around here, so this helps massively.

"When I've been here I feel a sense of relief.

"If this place wasn't here we'd just be sitting on the steps outside.

"There's a group of us mums, we call it the mothers' meeting, we'd be on the steps outside having a chat, so this place is good.

"We can come in, have a cuppa, and just put the world to rights, really. It's just a nice way for everyone to get together."

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