A Wirral couple say they've had an "eye opener" 18 months after seeing children sharing shoes to play out and families surviving off toast.
Andrew Poynton and his wife Jan, from West Kirby, started a group helping people on Wirral isolating and dealing with food shortages in the early days of the pandemic.
They were shocked to come across families with "kids sharing shoes", people living long-term without fridge freezers, and families surviving on toast for days after being forced to isolate.
And although lockdown has eased they say they are determined to keep the group going full time.
READ MORE: Dad left in Covid coma doesn't know his daughter is dead
Andrew, 50, founded Wirral Support During Coronavirus Group on Facebook in the early days of the pandemic after seeing an elderly man crying in his local Aldi when he was unable to find paracetamol for his wife.
He started by handing out leaflets in his local area in West Kirby, offering support for those struggling amidst shortages and self isolation as the country hurtled towards lockdown.
Within a week the group had 5,000 members on Facebook, with people rushing to the aid of others and responding to "all kinds" of requests for help.
More than 18 months on, the group has grown to 11,000 members with an admin team, and storage space for the many items people have donated.
Entirely funded by its members, the group - which Andrew describes as more like a movement - has also won various awards for its community work.
Andrew told the ECHO : "A few weeks before lockdown I could sort of see what was coming so I started putting leaflets through the doors in West Kirby for my elderly neighbours.
"Within a week we had five thousand members and it just took off as people weren't really prepared for the lockdown.
"We managed to basically through sheer perseverance set up some contacts with local MPs, councillors and wholesalers and were able to provide people in the community with food, and toilet roll when that ran out.
"Now it's just so enormous, it's grown into a movement - it's just taken off and now this is what I do all day."
The group has dealt with requests ranging from the bizarre - including moving dozens of sheep in a makeshift procession from Wirral to North Wales - to the heartbreaking, including arranging a 24-hour vigil outside the home of a lady ill with coronavirus who was terrified of "dying alone."
Members of the group also regularly arrange meals and shopping for people who are self-isolating or struggling in other ways.
And they have also organised surprises for people who have had a "tough year" - including arranging for four Tesla cars to turn up at the house of a young boy who was unable to go outside to celebrate his birthday.
Andrew says keeping the group going full time has "transformed" is life.
Members of the public send donations and respond to requests for help in the group, and Andrew said it has been an "eye opener" to the division between the rich and poor in Wirral.
He said: "Lockdown has eased but poverty hasn't on the Wirral and a lot of the issues people are facing predate the pandemic.
"There's so much need, the poverty people are living in, it's embarrassing we allow people to live like that in this day and age.
"We've been putting shoes on children's feet as they couldn't play out together as they were sharing shoes.
"This is more than the pandemic, I've had my eyes opened to it.
"I'm originally from the Woodchurch [estate] and I've done well for myself, but I was stuck on that hamster's wheel to prosper yourself and this has opened my eyes to the fact the poverty that exists here today is mind blowing.
"We're just a plaster on a cut that needs stitches.
"It's not so much that people are falling in the gaps, it's the division between the wealthy and those who aren't.
"I lived in West Kirby where here are some million pound houses. You go three miles away and there are kids who don't have shoes.
"That's nothing to do with the pandemic, that's cutbacks, people being forgotten and an 'I'm alright Jack mentality.'
"What I've seen with the people in the group though has restored my faith in humanity.
"Some of the stories people tell, the work volunteers do, it keeps you going through the dark times, and there have been plenty of them.
"Now we're working to try to raise funds for beach wheelchairs after one of our volunteers told us about how she wasn't able to take her daughter, Daisy, who uses a wheelchair onto the beech."
The group is currently fundraising to have beach wheelchairs located at spots across the Wirral and has so far raised enough for one wheelchair.
Andrew says: "It's a brilliant start and Daisy will get to go the beach, but we want this available for so many more.
"I know for myself the beach was a saviour during lockdown, in this day and age it's not right that it's something people can't access."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
