Cleo Demetriou is an 18 year old actress well known for her role of Lily Hampton in the children’s series So Awkward. Cleo is also Kidscape Ambassador and has written the following article for the charity’s website which they have kindly allowed us to share in order to provide some ideas for families to increase our young supporters’ mental wellbeing.
Staying Connected with Friends.
What have you found most difficult?
"I have found it super difficult during this lockdown period not seeing my pals. The little things like going for lunch, having sleepovers and game nights have been the things I have missed the most and I didn’t realise this until spending a few weeks in lockdown!
The hardest thing for me personally was realising just how much seeing my friends gave me something to look forward to and obviously considering the circumstances I haven’t been able to make any plans with them!
The good thing to come out of this though, is my deeper appreciation for all of them.
Sometimes when being away from people that are important to you, it can make you realise just how much they mean to you!"
Top Tips for staying connected:
- 1. Something that I have been really enjoying is arranging a group Facetime or zoom with my friends! We’ve been playing games and arranging quiz nights while on Facetime which has been really fun!
- 2. I have also been doing a lot of baking and making little vlogs of the process to send to my friends. This has encouraged everyone to bake and we all enjoy watching each other’s videos in our group chat.
- 3. We have also been watching movies together! I know this sounds impossible but what we’ve done is set a time for us to all start the movie and then talk on our group chat while the movie is going on so it feels like we are all with each other!
- 4. Another simple thing I've been doing is just giving them a call! Having a catch up and checking in on them frequently.
- 5. Finally, we have been playing games with each other! Some of my faves are the imessage games you can challenge people to!
We hope all our young supporters are keeping well whilst they are not able to see their friends at school. For additional support with any aspect of your child’s welfare please visit the Kidscape website.
Kidscape are an official partner of Newport County AFC and player Josh Sheehan is a Welsh Ambassador for the organisation.