Don't let them be alone this Christmas! But half a million will.

6.9 million older people in Britain will be relieved when Christmas is over, national research shows.

And what is worse, half a million older people in Britain will spend Christmas Day entirely alone.

New research, undertaken by pub chain Ember Inns shows that 20% of older people will awake on Christmas morning dreading the day ahead.

And nearly in 20 older people didn’t receive one single present last Christmas.

The worst part about Christmas Day for nearly one in 10 older people is spending the time alone. In fact, 11% say they feel upset when they see other people with families on Christmas Day.

Nearly one in 10 older people say will be making do with a pre-purchased ready meal on Christmas Day.

Ember Inns has decided to redress this problem by donating a table at every one of its 130 pubs across the UK on Christmas Day to lonely older people from the local community.

Each pub has donated a four course Christmas dinner, free of charge, so lonely older people can spend the day surrounded by their peers.

Fiona Richardson, who is the Marketing Manager for Ember Inns, said, “At Ember Inns we're passionate about communities. We all have friends or relatives who live alone. This can be a very hard for some of them, especially so in the run up to Christmas and our pubs are ideally situated in the community to help.

"Our pubs are all over the UK so lonely older people will be certain to have one near them that they can rely on for the perfect Christmas this year.”

In the UK over half of all 75 year olds live alone and one in ten suffers ‘intense’ loneliness but is reluctant to ask for help and 17% of older people think Christmas is ‘just like any other day’.

For more information visit www.emberinns.co.uk .