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	The Duchess of Northumberland is offering tattoos and speed dating for the elderly after opening a cafe to help combat loneliness.</p>
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	Situated at The Alnwick Garden, which the Duchess redeveloped and opened 15 years ago, the centre will offer a range of activities from toe nail clipping to getting a flu jab.</p>
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	Called the Stuart Halbert Elderberries Drop In Centre, the cafe will be run by volunteers and will be open to anyone over 55.</p>
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	The Duchess said: &quot;We all see on television cases of elderly people being mistreated and I just think that&#39;s really, really unacceptable and we&#39;re the perfect place to offer the chance for people to come if they want to get out of their house or flat.</p>
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	&quot;They can come and sit and talk, hopefully have a flu jab, it&#39;s where they can come and have their toe nails cut. It&#39;s where they&#39;ll always find a friend, someone will always be cooking and baking and it&#39;s run by volunteers.</p>
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	&quot;I like doing things differently, I know there are old people who would like to have tattoos so I want to do temporary ones.</p>
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	&quot;I&#39;d also like to do speed dating nights here, getting elderly men and women together to do what they want to do.&quot;</p>
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	She said that in Northumberland there is a high percentage of old people who are often left without family close by due to them moving away for work.</p>
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	&quot;I like thinking outside the box, so the jigsaws and the dominoes are great if that&#39;s what they want, but equally some of them will want hair braiding and beads and all sorts of quirky things,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Marking 15 years since the garden opened, the Duchess said the benefits to the North East had been huge, despite criticism of what she was doing at the beginning.</p>
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	She said: &quot;In the early days when I was building Alnwick Garden people didn&#39;t really understand what we were doing and there was huge criticism about the project because I had received public funding.</p>
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	&quot;But what is extraordinary is we know from our own economic impact study after 15 years in business the garden has generated &pound;236 million of extra spend in our region, which is an incredible figure.&quot;</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 13th October 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/duchess-opens-cafe-to-combat-loneliness-of-elderly-with-offer-of-speed-dating-35126816.html">http://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/duchess-opens-cafe-to-combat-loneliness-of-elderly-with-offer-of-speed-dating-35126816.html</a></p>
