Shelagh Fogarty - Loneliness

Shelagh visits the Pear Tree Centre in Milton Keynes. It's a day centre run by Age UK that acts as a lifeline for some of the loneliest people in society. She hears the stories of visitors to the centre, and discovers that it's not just older people who feel chronically lonely. She also talks to the Health Minister Norman Lamb just over a fornight after the government said the number of chronically lonely people in the UK was a source of "national shame".