A flagship daily newspaper has launched a campaign to combat the problem of loneliness affecting people across its region.

The Yorkshire Post has revealed that there are 281,870 over 65s who live alone across Yorkshire and almost a third – 91,300 older people who admit to feeling lonely all the time or often.

It has also revealed the disturbing health burden that is created by loneliness and isolation including a heightened risk of high blood pressure and developing dementia.

The Post has joined forces with national charity – the Campaign to End Loneliness – to urge all local authorities to write loneliness into their health strategies and to encourage more volunteers to take part in projects to alleviate the problem.

The Yorkshire Post reveals scale of loneliness across the county

Yorkshire Post head of news Mark Casci said: “The loneliness campaign the Yorkshire Post is running is perhaps one of the more emotive issues I can remember.

“It’s a problem which blights the lives of thousands of Yorkshire men and women of all ages and has all sorts of negative ramifications for communities and public health.

“The time has come to end the causes and the taboo that surrounds loneliness.”

Kate Jopling, director of the Campaign to End Loneliness told the Yorkshire Post: “We need the authorities tasked with looking after our health and wellbeing to recognise the importance of this issue and make long term plans to address it.

“And we need those responsible for commissioning services, to invest in the sort of low level, but highly effective schemes that help lonely people to make new meaningful connections.”

The campaign has already been backed by several high-profile politicians including Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield MP Nick Clegg.

“I think we should all encourage each other to think about ways we can get involved in our communities and give a little bit of time to help each other out,” he told the paper.

“I want to pay tribute to the Yorkshire Post for launching this campaign on such an important subject.”

As part of the Post’s campaign, a summit will held in the coming months to discuss how loneliness can be tackled more effectively.

Readers are invited to back our campaign by downloading a letter to sign and send to their local health and wellbeing board to call for loneliness and isolation to be written into their strategies.