STAFF at sheltered housing in Innerleithen have gifted activity packs to residents.

Tenants of Mercer Court, in the town’s Angle Park, have been relieved of lockdown boredom after the generosity of Hanover Scotland employees.

Items given to residents include word searches, crosswords, colouring-in packs, pens and pencils.

Mercer Court development manager Kathleen Ewart said the response has been "grand", adding: "On the whole, it’s gone down well.”

Some of the kit was bought by staff, while other pieces were donated by the owner of the Treasure Island gift shop, Martha Gibson.

Ms Ewart said: “The residents were getting a bit fed up, the longer lockdown was going on, so I thought it was time to find something to help pass the time.

“Some of our tenants have been able to get out for walks but some are shielding, some have health issues that mean it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to go out, some of them are of an age where they want to stay in even though they’re mobile – they’re a bit scared to go out.

“I knew that some of them liked doing things like crosswords and word searches, some people like colouring in, so we put things like that in the pack.

“I bought the activities but didn’t have enough colouring pens, so contacted Martha at Treasure Island to see if she had any in her shop and she gave us a lot for free.”

Ms Ewart added: “The colouring in has gone down really well, and some of them have coloured the pictures in and given them back, so I’ve laminated them and put them up."