One in four Australians report feeling persistently lonely, with doctors increasingly ‘prescribing’ non-medical activities to improve wellbeing and social connection
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Trevor Gough is as socially active as they come. At 85, he volunteers regularly at Meals on Wheels, cycles upwards of 10km a few times a week, often catches up with friends for coffee and sees his two children.
But he lives alone, and is not immune to bouts of loneliness. Gough’s wife, to whom he was married for 54 years, died seven years ago. “It was a big blow … [We had] known one another for 60 years,” he says. “You come back to an empty house.”
