It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to be responsible for looking after a bedridden spouse or parent or a profoundly handicapped child at home. It is not just that it is a 24 hour-a-day job and that it breaks one's heart for the person one loves to be so dependent. We can all cope with that for a day or a month or even a year. But, for a surprising number of people in the Ribble Valley, it is their daily reality, year after year and – if they cannot afford a private nurse – it is endlessly unremitting.

One never seems to meet such people, principally because they are busy at home looking after their loved one, but they do exist and the strangest thing is they almost never ask for help. It would make them feel guilty and embarrassed. That is where Ribble Valley Crossroads comes in. Under the Presidency of Lady Clitheroe, it seeks these people out and offers them a lifeline.

Its service is pathetically simple. A caring member of its team spends a few hours, every now and again, standing in for the carer.

They are lovely people and virtually become members of the family. And what a boon they provide!

Imagine yourself, in the run up to Christmas, unable to go out for a day to buy presents for your family because you cannot get away from the house. Imagine never being able to while away a couple of hours at the hairdresser or at the pictures or to have an afternoon in the country.

Dotted around the Ribble Valley, there are people, almost invariably women, who never have this opportunity of recreation and will never have it unless we all do our bit and help out with a few quid.

On Sunday, Lady Clitheroe's team will be at The Old Zoo at Brockhall Village with the Mayor of Ribble Valley, Coun. John Hill. The gardens there will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and it costs a fiver to get in.

It's pretty good value and the money goes to Crossroads. But the Mayoress will be taking her biggest handbag and the Mayor will be wearing his trousers with the big pockets and, at 3 p.m., they will stand in the gardens waiting to accept nice big cheques from the good people of the Ribble Valley.

I am going there to give them one. See you there?