Elderly residents at NorseCare care home have been getting active and are now singing the praises of Comic Relief after its £20,000 grant bought some ‘Oomph!’ into their lives.

In March, Comic Relief’s TV sketch show raised over £63 million for good causes throughout the UK and abroad.

NorseCare received a £20,000 grant from Comic Relief’s Health and Wellbeing for Stronger Communities Fund and is using the money to introduce the Oomph! project into its care homes in Norfolk.

Oomph! Wellness, a specialist activities and wellbeing providers has trained more than 200 care home staff to develop their skills and confidence to help them ensure residents are happy and engaged in activities for them to enjoy.

Comic Relief’s grant has led to a 67 per cent increase in residents’ physical activity, as well as an 84 per cent leap in their social interaction.

Kate Grange, NorseCare’s dementia care lead said: “We already had good activity plans in our homes, but this Comic Relief grant and Oomph’s help has enabled us to develop some new and different ideas.

“We know that, especially for people living with dementia, music is a very powerful aid for us to use, so having the choirs in our homes is a really lovely way of supporting our residents as well as having a lot of fun together.”

The activities residents’ are getting involved included seated football, pottery, yoga and choir sessions.

Karen Knight, manager director at NorseCare, said: “The grant we got from Comic Relief is absolutely brilliant at getting a lot of fabulous activities into our homes.

“We’ve used it for an Oomph project and its brought so much fun, laughter and joy. Not only to all our residents but all the staff joining in. Thank you very much to Comic Relief for being able to provide the money to let us do this.”