J O Robson and Morag Kerr are enjoying their weekly chin-wag over a cup of coffee at a Tyne Valley garden centre.

Although they have only got to know one another in the last eight months, it’s clear they’ve already struck up a warm and easy friendship which allows for a bit of joshing on either side.

It’s a cold January morning and the pair have been looking at the spring bulbs with an eye to doing some early planting. “We’re good at talking about what we’ll do,” Morag says and Jo laughs in agreement.

She and her husband, George, used to enjoy keeping their garden at their home in Prudhoe well stocked – until they took on a lively springer spaniel called Tara.

Once inside the centre’s cosy cafe, Morag whips out her mobile phone and starts to show Jo photographs of her border collie, Sookie. Jo loves to hear about Sookie’s latest antics as she and George used to have their own collie before Tara arrived on the scene.

For Jo, who is living with Alzheimer’s Disease, these trips out with Morag are a real boost, but Morag says she gets just as much, if not more, out of their relationship.

“I would say it’s absolutely fantastic – for Jo, but definitely for me. It’s extremely rewarding – we have good conversations. We talk a lot. For instance, about when Jo was a child and how she had a pet donkey. We talk about her family and what they’ve been doing.

“She gets muddled up sometimes,but I tell her about my family, particularly my little nephew, and we get along fine.”

The actress Carey Mulligan, an ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society, recently spoke movingly on Radio 4 about her own grandmother and the need for friends and family of people living with dementia to maintain regular social contact.

She told the Today programme: “There’s a calmness, there’s a companionship: these really fundamental feelings of being loved, being taken care of by people and family who really love you. I think that’s something that regardless of how progressed your dementia is, stays with you.

“That’s a real argument for people going to visit loved ones regardless of how far progressed their disease is.”

Research has shown that people with dementia are at risk of isolation. A survey unveiled last year by the society found that over half of people with the condition were no longer taking part in any or hardly any social activities, whilst 48 per cent said that what would help most to stay connected was seeing family and friends more often, and having someone to help them take part in activities and hobbies (51 per cent).

This is where the befriending initiative, launched just nine months ago in the Tyne Valley, is already improving the lives of people like Jo.

Morag, who hails originally from Kirkmuirhill near Glasgow but now lives in Wark, was one of the first volunteers to sign up for the Alzheimer’s Society’s Befriending Service in the local area.

As front of house manager at Hexham’s Forum Cinema, she heard about the project when the cafe there hosted a meeting of the Tynedale Dementia Action Alliance.

“I asked if it was possible for me to be considered as a volunteer and they called me in for an interview,” she says.

Morag met Jenny Keech, the society’s community support manager for the A69 corridor, who works out of Hexham Community Centre. Jenny oversees another seven active volunteers like Morag and has other people currently training. However, she doesn’t yet have any male volunteers.

“We really do need more men if possible,” Jenny says. “We have had two go through interview but because of commitments, they haven’t been able to start so I have no men in the area at all.”

It’s particularly important to have a good gender balance as the society tries hard to match the befriender with the client, and some men would understandably rather have a male volunteer visit them.

In East Northumberland, where the befriending service has been up and running for two and a half years , there are around 26 volunteers including a decent proportion of men.

Jenny says, “We would love to be able to get up to those kind of numbers. At the same time,we haven’t had a massive response of people wanting the service yet in this area, so if people know somebody who would benefit from the service, come and have a chat and let’s see how we can help. We have the capacity to set people up quite quickly.”

There’s no requirement for volunteers to have worked with people with dementia before as full training in safeguarding and other aspects of care are given. However volunteers are security checked and references are required.

Jenny adds, “A volunteer just needs to be someone who’s friendly, someone who wants to meet somebody new – there’s no age limit at all (aside from being over 18).

“We are looking for young people, retired people – anyone who wants to give that little bit of time back to the community.”

Volunteers are encouraged to find out about their person’s interests and hobbies that may have been neglected since the onset of their dementia.

For example, Jo, who is 74 and George, 76, who have been married for 55 years this year, were very keen walkers and would spend up to six months a year in Spain with their motor home, tackling treks in the Pyrenees and the French Alps.

“We enjoyed it – until, this, whatever I have got,” Jo says. Morag likes to get Jo outdoors on her weekly jaunts because Jo has been such an outdoorsy person all her life.

“In the summer, we’ve been to ice cream parlours out in the country and to Brocksbushes fruit farm at Corbridge,” she says. “I’ve also found out that Jo enjoyed swimming, so that’s something we’re looking into – perhaps going to the local leisure centre.”

Elsewhere in Northumberland, Jenny says one volunteer has taken a man who loved archery back to join an archery club and somebody else who liked golfing is getting back into the swing.

Although the befriending project is not designed as a respite service, those two hours that Jo trips off with Morag each Tuesday are much appreciated by George.

“I know it’s a short time, but it’s a relief to know Morag is coming. You can get things done which you would not normally do, like catching up on paperwork, banking and so forth.”

George, a retired production planner at Kimberley Clark, says it was about two years ago that he first started to notice a change in Jo, who used to work in an optician’s.

“Looking back, it was not finishing what she was saying, that type of thing, or doing odd things she would not normally do, such as moving things like photographs from one place to another and not realising it had happened.

“It just gradually progressed from there to now where her short term memory has gone.”

“As a carer, it can be mentally exhausting and very frustrating; there’s not enough hours in the day really to fit everything in that needs to be done, like running the house and looking after other things.”

The couple have a son, also called George, who is a busy paramedic, and a daughter, Dawn, who heads up the design department at a textile company in Jedburgh, as well as three grandchildren aged between nine and 18 – both their children have busy lives and there’s a limit to how much help they can offer George.

Jenny says, “For the client’s loved ones it’s about knowing that their family member is going out with someone that they can trust, that they are in safe hands. It’s also an opportunity for them to sit down and have a breather or go and do something they want to do and not worry about caring responsibilities.

“When they’re doing that role 24/7 – to be able to not have to worry about what the person with dementia is doing gives them a break. George told me that Morag was like ‘a breath of fresh air’ and I thought that was such a lovely thing to turn around and say.”

Helen Williams, services manager for Alzheimer’s Society in Northumberland, says volunteers can also give confidence to the family member and their loved one to be more active.

“They may give carers the confidence to go out again. They may have had trouble getting someone to go out, but if it’s something that’s worked with the volunteer, they may give it another go.

“And I suppose for anyone who spends 24 /7 together, it’s nice to have that break from each other and it gives them something to talk about. I really would like to pay tribute to our volunteers – they are a fantastic bunch.”

Jenny adds, “It’s just a fantastic opportunity to see that compatibility and friendship between a volunteer, like Morag, and a service user, like Jo, and when it works, it works beautifully.

“It blossoms and it grows and it’s lovely to watch that companionship flourish. “

l For more information about the Alzheimer’s Society’s Befriending Service in the Tyne Valley contact Jenny Keech on (01670) 813255 or email northumberland@alzheimers.org.uk