Kathleen Greaves and Thelma Stone

TWO pensioners who set up a charity to help those in need following the Covid crisis have appealed to readers to help them continue their work after their coffers ran dry.

Next door neighbours Kathleen Greaves, 87, and Thelma Stone, 79, set up the Islington Crisis Fund in April last year after noticing how many people were in need of support in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grandmothers, who have lived next door to each other for decades in Tufnell Park, have already handed out £5,000 to those most in need after they previously raised the cash through friends and family.

But they said they cannot ask their loved ones again.

Retired civil servant Ms Greaves said: “It was started first of all in the Covid crisis that left a lot of people in financial difficulties, because they lost their jobs and things like that. So we started it with that in mind, and then when Covid died down of course, what we’ve got is the energy crisis, which is actually more serious.”

Ms Greaves said the charity, which has helped around 120 families and single people, asks no questions about what their clients will spend the money on, and typically hands out an Argos voucher worth around £50.

They are a referrals-only charity, and only hand out cash to those identified by other agencies as in need of assistance.

Among the recipients of the money was a single mother of three who said it allowed her to give her children a Christmas present last year. Another bought a phone with her money, while others bought kettles and pressure cookers.

Ms Stone, a former translator who lived in Spain for years, said: “We both felt that what was so wrong was that there are certain people living in a very comfortable way like us, not to mention very rich people, which is not us. And there are other people who just weren’t getting the basic necessities and we wanted to appeal, I suppose to people, ordinary people like us, as well as rich people, to give something just to save people from absolute disaster.”

Because they hand out money (in the form of vouchers) to individuals, they are not able to raise funding from public bodies which are limited in who they are allowed to fund.

The two women said the driving force behind setting up their charity was because of the “scandalous poverty” in both the UK and closer to home in Islington.

“We have many very prosperous people living here but we know there are many, many people living in poverty in Islington. Real, real poverty. You don’t want to live in a society like that, do you?” asked Ms Greaves.

Ms Stone said it was “really sad” the charity needed to exist and said it was an indictment of the present day inequality in society.

To donate, go to www.islingtoncrisisfund.org