A COMMUNITY art project stopping isolation among older people in Govan is in desperate need of funds.

Craft Cafe, run by charity Impact Arts, is credited with changing the lives of elderly people using art.

But funding for the service runs out this month and bosses must raise £12,000 to keep the thrice-weekly sessions running.

Lead Tutor Charlotte Craig said: “We have a society that moves very quickly, sometimes leaving older people feeling out-of-touch and without a purpose. Craft Café is a place where those people can be celebrated.

"To know that we have the support of the public would be incredibly encouraging and heartwarming."

Craft Cafe has raised £2700 so far and secured £5000 from European Championships-linked funding, the Our Place Fund.

But there is still a shortfall and participants will be selling their artwork today and tomorrow in Buchanan Galleries to help boost the effort.

Former amateur footballer and joiner Danny Park is now disabled having suffered spine and leg problems.

The 68-year-old said: " I’ve been coming for about seven years. It’s a relief; you can come in and talk way, have a cup of tea and a chat. Everybody speaks to you and makes you feel welcome.

“You’re meeting people outside your home, and of a similar age group. If it wasn’t here we’d be sitting in the house, watching the telly, and stagnating.

“If the Craft Café wasn’t here, that’d be me finished."

Craft Café has been running in Govan for nearly 10 years and more than 80 members attend regularly.

Rose Reid joined Craft Cafe in September 2017 after her husband died that June.

The 72-year-old said: "I knew I had to do something to keep me going. A link worker at the doctor suggested community groups – I knew I wasn’t ready for a lunch club, I wanted something that would keep my mind active and challenge me.

“I was a home help for 22 years, and I saw then that there wasn’t enough for older people when they finished working. If you don’t have a family looking after you, what do you do?"

Before retiring, Lesley King was a radiographer and domestic supervisor for the NHS.

The 70-year-old said: “My husband passed away in 2012 and I’d begun to feel isolated where I lived. I get depression and sometimes that gets really bad, but I find that Craft Café is very good for my mental health. It keeps me stable, and there’s no pressure.

“It’s a very worthwhile cause because it keeps a lot of people out of the care system. All of us would be at a loss if it wasn’t here.”

Retired hospital porter Dan McNeill, 67, has lived in Govan all his life and joined Craft Cafe when he stopped working two years ago.

He added: “I see a lot of older people retire, and dote around pubs and betting shops, just through habit. But you can’t keep doing that – it actually becomes boring after a while.

“See the word community – I never cared about that for years. But when you get older and you need it - you find that it does matter. It really does."

To donate to the Craft Cafe see www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keepgovancrafting-older-peoples-craft-cafes

The group will be in the Good shop unit on Buchanan Galleries first floor opposite Starbucks today and tomorrow from 10am til 5pm.