A Brecon chip shop is offering free fish and chips to anybody who will be on their own on Christmas Day.
Watergate Fish Bar, which has overlooked Llanfaes Bridge for almost 100 years, is aiming to put a smile on the face of anybody who might be isolated on Saturday, December 25.
Based on the Watergate, the fish and chips shop is run by Des Lally along with his parents Desmond and Anne Lally who have owned the shop for almost 40 years.
Des, 46, said: “It’s the first time we’ve done it on Christmas Day. There’s a lot of people out there and I always say that there’s someone who’s worse off than you and I think at the end of the day, if everyone could give a little bit back like we’re doing, the world would be a better place.
“We just thought that rather than seeing somebody on their own, especially at this time of year, that we’d try and maybe help them out and put a smile on their face even if it is just for the one day by offering them some free fish and chips.
“We did something similar back in October last year, so do you remember the children’s meals? We did that as well, we gave families that had free school meals, we gave free meals to children over the space of I think it was two weeks or whatever.”
The offer is open to people in the town who may be alone at Christmas - especially elderly people who are more likely to be isolated generally.
Watergate Fish Bar posted social media asking people to get in touch if they were interested by today - Wednesday, December 22.
Des said: “We’ve had a lot of enquiries already and if they’re not having a hot meal on Christmas Day, as I put in my Facebook post, we’ll deliver if we can - obviously it’s subject to demand because we’re a small family business and we’re not one of these big delivery franchises like Deliveroo or Just Eat or any of those, it’s literally us and we’re just going to try to help as many people as we can for the period of time that we’re open for.
“It’s one of those things, we’d spoken about it and we thought if we can do something to make someone’s day on Christmas Day who might other wise be at home on their own and not have a hot meal - hopefully it just makes the world a better place.
“Even if it just puts a smile on someone’s face for a day then it’s done what it was designed to do.
“We’ve had a lot of enquiries already and hopefully we can help as many people as we can while we’re open, and if anyone wants to give us a ring we’ll get them some fish and chips or whatever they want that we serve.”
The charitable chippy can be contacted with enquiries by calling Des Lally on 07792 136077.