'I could paper a room with begging letters': Elderly couple at wits' end as charities bombard them with cash appeals
A couple are at their wits' end over the number of begging letters from charities they receive – so many they could wallpaper the lounge with them.
Kindly Betty and Roy Griffin, from Dudley, give to several charities but say they feel 'squeezed' to give more.
They fear that vulnerable elderly people are becoming targets for professional fundraisers.
Mrs Griffin, aged 79, said: "These people are vultures – they're trained in the best ways to achieve the right result. It's easy to get lured into giving, and you're left feeling awful if you don't."
The couple were moved to speak out after reading of the tragic death of pensioner Olive Cooke whose body was recovered from Avon gorge in Bristol after she confided of being tormented by cold-callers from charities.
An inquest heard that the 92-year-old, who was one of Britain's longest serving poppy-sellers, had felt under pressure from the number of requests she received from charities by phone and letter.
Mr and Mrs Griffin know what that feels like. They changed their telephone number three times in order to avoid such calls.
Retired dinner lady Betty said: "We got a block put on the line but it only lasted three months. The last time we changed our number we went ex-directory. This is what Olive was having to put up with - phone calls day and night.
"It's like they're entitled to a donation - it's pressure."
Sitting at the kitchen table in the couple's cosy semi-detached home, she showed the bizarre collection of gifts that are included in some of the letters, intended to guilt-trip recipients into forking out more cash.
They include free sticky labels bearing their names and address, thermal gloves. rosary beads, scarves, religious texts, a crucifix and baby socks.
The good-hearted pair have always given due consideration to the charities they support, giving £5 monthly donations to the RSPCA and the Dogs Trust and making further one-off contributions during the year, mainly in response to crisis appeals, as well as sending money at Christmas to their six favourite charities.
Betty puts £1 a week in a box and divides it up at the end of the year between the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Dogs Trust, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Her husband, a retired metal worker, would like to give more of their modest income but Betty has had to put her foot down.
She says the number of charity requests they receive has escalated in the past year, with a pile six inches deep if gathered together, arriving every month.
"I could wallpaper our lounge with them there are so many. Every other post brings more. It's lovely having letters but not that kind," says the grandmother-of-two.
"I've now got to the point of not reading them. My husband gets upset when I say 'Bin it' but you've got to harden yourself. You feel like a mean sod sometimes, and I'm not that way at all. It hurts when you have to say 'don't open that'.
"Sometimes we'll get two appeals from the same people in a month. We gave £10 to the World Wildlife Trust and two weeks later got another request for money, and we're only one example. We've worked hard all our lives and we feel we're being squeezed."
They choose to keep more control over their money by sending cheques rather than signing up for direct debit payments. But they fear for other elderly people, especially with dementia and Alzheimer's Disease on the rise.
Betty said: "These are things that pensioners really are worried about, especially those living alone. Some relatives don't live down the road. Our daughter is in Kingswinford, our son in Bromsgrove, too far away to be of immediate help.
"Something needs to be done. The elderly do seem to be targeted with this sort of mail and even governments can't seem to stop it."
