OSCAR winner Lord Fellowes helped volunteers at Age UK celebrate raising £2million for older people.

It was a triple celebration for the charity which aims to help older people through its campaigns, voluntry work, advice and research.

Firstly Age Concern Dorchester officially rebranded and became Age UK Dorchester at the beginniung of the month.

The charity will now cover a wider area of Dorset and provide services across West and North Dorset, Purbeck, and Weymouth and Portland, in partnership with many of the local Age Concerns in those areas.

Secondly, the charity celebrated International Older People’s Day on October 1.

The final cause for celebration was the fact that the Dorchester-based welfare benefits team of volunteers recently reached the £2million milestone.

Since 2003 the team has been helping older people to claim the benefits they are entitled to.

In 2009 they hit the £1million mark and after the team expanded they doubled the amount in just two years.

Volunteers, staff and trustees held an evening party to celebrate and Age UK South West Patron Lord Fellowes attended.

Lady Emma Fellowes said the event had been fantastic.

She said: “Raising £2million is an incredible achievement.

“We both agreed after meeting the volunteers that they are very special people. They give all the information on whatpeople are entitled to very clearly”

Se added: “They are really good people and we couldn’t be more delighted to help them.”

Chief officer for Age UK Dorchester Di Lawrence said that often older people didn’t realise they were entitled to benefits.

She said: “We have a team of 23 welfare benefits volunteers and a co-ordinator and they go out and do home visits with poeple. They go through the facts and the circumstances with people and find out what thy are entitled to.”

She added: “A lot of older people are very proud and don’t like asking for things from the state, even though they have paid into the state for years and they are entitled to it.”

Mrs Lawrence added that the event had been lovely.

She said: “It went really well. Lord and Lady Fellowes are really good supporters of ours.”

She added: “It was a lovely evening, there was a really good atmosphere and people had a really good time.”