The continued improvements in healthcare and treatments and the resulting knowledge that we are living longer lives throws up many challenges.

Indeed, Government analysis released earlier this year predicts that a third of children born this year will live to 100.

Among one of the most pressing challenges is how to ensure that we are giving our elderly the best possible quality of life in their later years.

Clearly, a large responsibility for this needs to fall on families to ensure that they are investing their own time in looking after the needs of their loved ones.

But with families stretched geographically, financially and time wise, this is increasingly not sufficient.

SureCare’s franchises and branches around the country are helping families to ensure that their relatives are given the best possible levels of care, support and, crucially, companionship as they enter their later years.

Our elderly clients require different levels of support, but one of the simplest and often the most important we can give is time. Time to chat, to pop to the newsagent to collect the daily paper or drive them to see a friend or to take part in a club in the local community.

Our elderly need to be cherished, like they are in many other countries such as Italy and Spain, and not cast on to the scrapheap when they have reached retirement age or start to find it harder to get about or do things for themselves.

Our elderly are precious and should be properly looked after and not seen as an inconvenience in society. Rather, we should be investing time not just talking to them, but listening and learning from their experiences in their lifetime.

SureCare will continue not just to provide care services to our elderly but also to provide companionship – which often simply means popping in for a chat and cup of tea.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if society as a whole came to value the importance of companionship?