Church offers folk a healing hand - with their computers

The West Fleetwood Community Computer Clinic, an initiative of Emmanuel Church West, was set up six months ago.

Whether it’s a virus riddled laptop, a tablet which has lost its programmes or a phone which won’t connect to the internet, they try to help.

The sessions are held at the Rossall Tavern pub, on Larkholme Parade, where the church meets as an offshoot of Emmanuel Church.

Emmanuel Church West member Dave Carlos, who leads the computer clinic team, said: “Not only can we sort out many technical issues, we also re-cycle older, donated, equipment for community use.

“We never know what kind of issues will walk through the door but we try to help everyone, sometimes it takes several days to find an answer, but we haven’t had a failure yet! We also offer training for those who need a little help. One client wanted to save videos from YouTube for talks he was giving to community groups. Others wanted to know how to get their music onto their tablets. We don’t know everything but we usually find an answer.”

Hosted at the Rossall Tavern, the clinic is completely free to everyone.

Dave added: “We have been offered payment but we have asked folk to make a donation to a charity instead. We do this to support the local community and as we are from ‘the church which meets in the pub’, the Tavern is the ideal location.”

One customer, Brian Ball, said: “I lost a lot of my aps and music, but Dave was able to fix it.”

The Clinic meets regularly on Monday nights starting at 7.30pm.

The next dates are: September 1, October 13/ 27, November 10/24 and December 8. More details from Dave on (01253) 424675.