Esther, an older lady with sight and hearing loss, is interviewed in her home 

Esther:
Everything is blurred, there's nothing clear at all. And the hearing, if I take the hearing aids out, I can't hear anything at all. When I'm ready for bed and I get into the bedroom, and I've got me hearing aids off and my glasses off, and there...I'm glad I'm near the bed. But, as I say, I can't afford to sit and seriously think about it or it would put me off. So I try to, as the vicar said, you try to joke about it, he said, but we can see that it's painful. But he said, it's nice, he said you don't burden other people....do my own shopping and, you know, do things that I was used to doing. I'm sort of confined to the house, if you know what I mean, and it began to get that I was doing housework when it really didn't need it, but I just couldn't sit all day doing nothing. And it was only a stroke of luck that we got to hear about you....isn't a definite time. She's always here be ten o'clock, unless she's going to be late and then she gives me a ring on the phone, but other than that it's about ten o'clock when she's here, than it can be anywhere from half past twelve to half past one when she goes, depending on....come to visit....Oh it's made a lot of difference. For one thing, I've got something to look forward to. There's a definite point where I know, well, I'm going to have somebody, and that in itself is a lift. You know, something to look forward to and to think about.

Esther with her support worker, Anna, in the supermarket:

Anna:
They've got a new flavour - pineapple - and they've still got your strawberry. Long life milk, this side. 

Esther:
Well I've had that. They last a long time, don't they? 

Anna:
They do, yeah. Yeah that will last you till 7th February 2008. They've got the cheese biscuits up there. 

Anna (at the checkout):
Fifty pounds and eight P. 

Anna (in Esther's kitchen):
They're all your dinners. 

Esther:
Which is the first one? 

Anna:
That's the first of September, that's the second, that's the fourth. 

Esther:
Oh, so they're all all right anyway, aren't they? 

Anna:
Yeah, they're all the first week of September

Interviewer (in Esther's living room):
....does it make having Anna come with you for the shopping? Could you manage on your own, do you think?

Esther:
I can't, no, no way. 

Interviewer:
Explain why. 

Esther:
Well, because I can't see going up and down the ailses. I also can't see, you know, what things, where I want to be or whatever. Where Anna's got it all, we go one arm around the other and it's all done. And I don't feel conscious of not seeing, do you know what I mean? When there's anything crops up that I can't manage myself, I automatically think, I'll ring Sense, there'll be somebody, and fortunately there is, and whoever answers the door, the phone, "Oh, hello Esther" and all that before I get to what I've rung them up for, and then when I say I've got a hospital appointment or doctor's or whatever, "Oh yes that's all right Esther, I'm sure there's somebody", which I'm more than grateful for, because you don't make me feel I'm a burden and, you know....

Interviewer:
assistance has helped you stay in your home environment longer.

Esther:
It's worth an awful lot, yes.

Interviewer:
And what does that mean to you, to be able to stay here with support? 

Esther:
It means an awful lot, it means everything, because you know what type of person I am. If I lose my independence, I would lose everything, I wouldn't be interested and everything else would go.