Give your Mother her independence this Mother's Day

Aid Call personal alarm provides constant reassurance.

While women can typically expect to live up to four years longer than men¹, many face the prospect of living alone. This Mother's Day (14th March), Age Concern Enterprises is encouraging families to offer the gift of greater independence and confidence around the home.

Sixty one per cent of women aged 75 and over live alone² and while they might feel confident, the risk of falling increases with age. Age Concern's personal alarm system, Aid Call, provides 24 hour reassurance to older people that they are not alone and can gain instant help should they have a fall or accident in their home or garden.

"Retaining independence in older age is vital to many people and being able to continue living in their own home plays a big part in this," commented Chris Last from Aid Call. "Aid Call is quite literally the gift of independence; you can't always be there but Aid Call can!"

One touch of the button on an Aid Call personal alarm connects the distressed person to a dedicated Response Centre, which is staffed by professionally trained operators 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

"Around the home or in the garden there can be numerous accidents waiting to happen and friends and family are not always available or close enough to help. Having the peace of mind that you can raise an alarm for assistance allows an individual to continue to live their life as normal," added Chris.

The alarm system operates a two-way speech link to enable the person who has raised the alarm to talk to an operator within seconds. The operator can then in turn contact their chosen keyholder - a friend, neighbour or relative - who will come to their aid. If there is no keyholder available, the emergency services will be contacted.

Aid Call provides reassurance for over 40,000 people every year and the emergency response system can be very quickly connected at homes anywhere in the UK.

You can now purchase a self-install Aid Call alarm as a gift with ‘Easy-Connect' which offers a saving of £80 when purchased online,please visit http://www.aidcall.co.uk/personalcare/shop/index.php.

To find out more about Aid Call or to arrange a no obligation demonstration in your own home please call 0800 121 4920. 

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For further information about Aid Call, please contact: Charlotte Elmehagen or Adam Smith on 0207 360 7878 or ageuk@teamspiritpr.com.

Notes to editors

¹ Office for National Statistics - UK Life Expectancy (21 October 2009) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=168&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=374
² Office for National Statistics - Great Britain Living Arrangements (24 September 2009) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1264

Age UK is the new force combining Age Concern and Help the Aged. We will be known by our new name from Spring 2010.

Age Concern Enterprises
Age Concern and Help the Aged have joined together to form a single new charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people.

To fund this work, it needs a constant flow of independent income. It seeks to achieve this through a balance of traditional fund raising and trading activities.

The trading activities, through Age Concern Enterprises, (ACEnt) enable it to meet the needs of older people, through products specifically designed to meet these needs; quality products such as General Insurance and Energy Services.

ACEnt incorporates: Age Concern Energy Services, Age Concern Insurance Services, Age Concern Funeral Plans and Charity Flowers Direct. Log on to www.ageconcern.org.uk/products for details.

Age Concern Enterprises Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for insurance mediation (311438) Age Concern Enterprises Ltd is registered in England and Wales No. 3156159. Registered Office: Astral House, 1268 London Road, SW16 4ER Age Concern Enterprises Ltd is a trading company of Age UK and donates any profits to that registered charity.

Age Concern England (charity number 261794) has merged with Help the Aged (charity number 272786) to form Age UK, a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England: registered office address 207-221 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9UZ, company number 6825798, registered charity number 1128267.

Age Concern Enterprises is based at 4th floor, 207 - 221, Pentonville Road, London, N1 9UZ.

Aid Call Boiler Plate required 
Aid Call is a discreet personal alarm system owned by Age Concern and Help the Aged that summons help, at the touch of a button. Over 40,000 people throughout the UK rely on the Aid Call emergency alarm service. Users are not exclusively older people; some have a physical disability, or a chronic condition such as epilepsy or diabetes, some are recovering from illness, while others are more concerned for their security than their health.

All of Aid Call's profits help to fund the works of Age Concern and Help the Aged, both in campaigning and lobbying at a national level, and providing essential services to the older community at a local level.