Volunteers are needed to help ensure as many families as possible can be reunited at a Falmouth nursing home in the run up to Christmas.

Two weeks ago King Charles Court Nursing Home became one of only 20 care homes in the country to be chosen for a pilot scheme giving rapid testing to families.

Provided family members test negative when they arrive for visits, it gives them greater access to their loved ones, with unlimited length visits and limited physical contact, such as hand-holding, while still wearing PPE.

Since the first visit on February 18, almost 30 family members have now been reunited with their loved ones at the home, which has 29 residents.

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However, the testing process is time consuming for staff, while at same time the home would like to extend the visits to seven days a week, to allow those who work during the week to come at weekends.

As a result, King Charles resident manager Melissa Jones is hoping one or two volunteers might come forward to help staff out in carrying out the testing.

Full training and follow-up support will be given, along with a free lunch when there.

She hopes people will be able to help out between 11am and 3.30pm each day. Currently visits are Monday to Friday, but the home would like to extend them to seven days a week.

Melissa said: "Although it is brilliant it is just so time-consuming. This would help us to extend the capacity within the home."

Families need to book a time slot to arrive at, 30 minutes before their visit time. They will then take the test and get the results 30 minutes later.

She added: "A retired military person, or fire service or police, would be perfect. Someone who is not in a high risk group and they do need to be DBS checked.

"I'm hoping it would be a positive way for somebody who wants to give back something towards the pandemic."