Quarantined Pensioners Laugh As They Play Real Life Hungry Hungry Hippos

As the UK government advises us all to keep our distance from each other and stay indoors, many are finding themselves increasingly bored. But residents at a care home in Wales have found the perfect way to keep occupied. And it's pretty amazing.

Rather than having them stuck in front of a TV and watching This Morning or Loose Women, staff at Bryn Celyn Care Home, in Maesteg, devised a life-size game of Hungry Hippos, using long sticks with baskets on the end to catch the colourful balls.

The residents, whose ages range from 80 to 102, sat in their wheelchairs and screamed with laughter as they were pushed in and out of the circle by staff and desperately tried to grab as many balls as they could.

Speaking to Wales Online about the genius idea, general manager of Bryn Celyn, Michelle Williams, said the residents know what's going on with the pandemic and that this was their way of trying to take their minds off it.

She said: "We just did it to cheer them up. We try to be as positive as we can - we don't want to walk around all doom and gloom.

"There's enough doom and gloom out there. We're just trying to keep things as normal and have fun, keep smiling and make sure our residents have fun and are safe.

Caters

"They know what's going out there."

Michelle has been living at Bryn Celyn for the past 18 years and she said it was fantastic.

Adding: "The residents loved it - they were just laughing. You can hear the laughter in the video.

"They really enjoyed it."

This comes after a 92-year-old pensioner begged people to think about the most vulnerable in society and to stop stripping shelves of the essentials people need.

Lillian Chew, who lives at Jasmine Court Care Home in Chorley, Lancashire, has issued a heartbreaking plea for people to 'think about us in care homes' before clearing supermarket shelves.

In her emotional plea, Lillian says: "Hello everyone out there, my name is Lillian. I'm in a care home in Chorley, Lancashire.

"I beg all you people out there, who are going out and clearing the shelves of everything, to think about us in care homes and these poor, poor people that are on their own and can't get anybody to help them.

"So please, think twice before you go to clear the shelves. Please take care everybody, and God bless you all."

Topics: UK News, Interesting, Coronavirus, Health

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

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