A Facebook group has been started by a Royston man to co-ordinate support for those who need it most in the town, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dave Carter founded the Royston vs Coronavirus page on Saturday.

He said he was inundated with people wanting to join and offering help with shopping, chores and donations for elderly residents and others who are at high-risk of developing complications and are self-isolating for weeks or more.

He told the Crow: “The idea was born from the fact that quite clearly there’s going to be people in different camps. The vast majority of people are going to be fine if they have the coronavirus, but unfortunately a large number of people aren’t – and those that can help should help those who need it.

“We can’t rely on the government, they can only do what they can – so it’s for us to step up for our community and give people somewhere to turn”

On the first day there was 100 people in the group, by day three there was 300 people and now there are over 1,000 members.

“I think its fabulous of the people of Royston,” Dave continued. “At a time when there’s so much criticism, with people panic-buying and hoarding, we need to realise there are an awful lot of people out there who are selfless and can stand together in order to help each other out.

“We have been inundated with offers of help which is great, the community we are trying to reach isn’t one on Facebook all the time so we’re thinking of more sensible ways.

“We wanted to reach out through the Crow and The Listing, another way is members putting posters up – we’re getting those made at the moment – and the third strategy is we’re going to section up a map of Royston and ask volunteers to put leaflets through doors in their particular grid of the map to reach as many people as possible.

“People would contact us and we’ll have two lists – the ones who offer help and those who need it.

“Royston is already a good community and many good things come out of bad situations so the hope is that when we come out of this we will become a tighter and even better community than we were going into it.”

To get in touch with Dave if you need help or can offer your time or goods, email RoystonvsCoronavirus@gmail.com, call 07973 853065 or search ‘Royston vs Coronavirus’ on Facebook.