Shropshire town comes together to donate food to man in lockdown after radio plea
A man has thanked the people of Wem after the community rallied together to deliver food and essentials to him during the coronavirus lockdown, in just one hour.
Douglas Brown, 61, has thanked the Wem community and especially local lady, Mell Benbow, for donating food, and much needed cat food for his pet cat Mya, since he could not get it himself and no delivery dates were available until May.
When listening to BBC Radio Shropshire on Easter Sunday, Mell heard Douglas tell presenter, Al Booth, he was running low on food for him and his cat.
She posted a help appeal on Wem's Covid-19 Support Group on Facebook and got in touch with the station to contact Douglas.
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In just one hour, Mell had bags of food dropped at her house and said she was amazed by the generous spirit in Wem.
"We had about 13 donations of food in the end," she said.
"Douglas is such a lovely man, he did not want any fuss. We had 10 whole bags of food for him as well as cat food for Mya.
"There must be about a month or two's worth of food there. It is absolutely amazing the way Wem pulled together like it did.
"If it had not been for the Wem support group, if I had posted on my own Facebook page, I think it might have gotten overlooked."
Mell praised the Facebook group for being a supportive lifeline to people during the coronavirus lockdown.
Douglas said he is so grateful to everyone for helping out, but especially Mell for organising everything.
"I would like to say a big warm thank you to Mell – she has supplied me with lots of food," he said.
"I could not believe the amount they got. The Maypole Cafe in Wem have also sent me a letter to say they will supply me with hot meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"That brought a tear to my eye. Thank you to them.
"I have arthritis so it is harder to get about now, but I would like to thank everyone for their help and say a big thank you to the NHS for everything they are doing for us."
Mell's father runs the White Lion pub in Wem, and with the help of singer Douglas, they are looking to put on a charity concert for the NHS when they open again.
