Mum who’s ‘fed up of being lonely’ writes heartfelt Facebook plea for ‘friends to socialise with’
Deborah Hawkins, 51, was worried people were going to laugh when she made the post
A SELF-CONFESSED "Billy no mates" single mum-of-two issued a heartfelt plea for mates on Facebook, after admitting she was "fed up" of feeling lonely.
Deborah Hawkins, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, said she had no one to go to the cinema or restaurants with because her daughters are both grown up and she works from home in online sales.
Opening up on her town's local Facebook group, the 51-year-old added that most of her friends and family live a 30 mile drive away in her home town of Birmingham.
She revealed: "I do lots of things on my own as i do enjoy my own company BUT sometimes just sometimes i really wish i had some friends to socialise with as there are some things i won't do on my own.
"Where can i go to meet people in a similar position surely i can't be the only one looking for friends.
"Please be nice as it wasn't easy writing this and its not easy admitting you are Billy no mates."
Posting in August, Deborah added that she would have loved to do The Two Counties Wobble, a local 10-mile pub crawl, the next day - "but I won't go because I have nobody to go with".
And she was inundated with messages from local people, prompting her to make a new Facebook group called Swadlincote making friends social to deal with the demand.
It now has more than 300 members.
Six months on, Deborah has dozens of mates and is never short of plans when she fancies a night out.
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She said: “Last summer was one of the hottest ever, I was fed up of spending it on my own.
“I wanted to go to beer gardens, restaurants and enjoy the sun with some company.
“When the girls were younger, I was always busy, and I would socialise with school mums, so loneliness was never a problem.
“Before I knew it, they were teenagers and were out doing their own thing, so I quickly became miserable of being alone.
“I was fed up of seeing nice restaurants that had just opened, or even coffee shops as I felt too embarrassed to go in on my own.
“One day I had enough of being on my own and I had nothing to lose so I poured my heart out on a Swadlincote Facebook group in a bid to make some new friends.
“I was anxious and I thought everyone was going to laugh at me, but within minutes, it was clear there were loads of people in the same boat.”
Co-op research carried out this year showed..
- 82% of young mums feel lonely.
- 33% of mums aged 18-19 feel lonely, compared to 9% of mums aged 26-30.
- 54% of single mums feel lonely compared to 38% of married mums.
- Mums who had their first child when they were younger than 16 are more likely to feel lonely compared to mums who had their first child when they were 27-29.
Deborah added: “I was over the moon with the replies, everyone was so nice and thankful that I plucked up the courage to write the post.
“The first event was a huge success, around 20 of us met in a café and it wasn’t awkward at all.
“We are always doing something like coffee mornings on Thursday and Fridays, bingo, pub quizzes and live music on Saturdays.
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“I now go out more than my daughters, my calendar is always full and I am happier than ever.”
Earlier this week, we revealed one single mum had made £4,000 by dating rich, older men who also lavish her with Tiffany jewels and posh dinners - but she won't hop into bed with them.
While this mum was left "depressed" after finding out she was having a boy - when she wanted a little girl.