Hi readers, it’s Emily and William here talking about corona virus and how it’s affecting us and others.

The main way it’s affected me, William, is that many things I’ve been looking forward to have been cancelled, like the Big Night Out, Dorchester FC matches, the rugby and premier league football which I like to watch.

We do worry that because it’s a new virus we really don’t know enough about it yet, that there is no antidote, or how it will develop over the coming months.

As we write this on Friday 13th we haven’t noticed much of a change in our daily lives because of it, but we see on TV it has really affected some people’s lives, especially those who’ve had to self-isolate. We think the government will close schools soon which will affect lots more people. It’s likely that both our work will be affected at some point too.

We are more worried about the elderly and people with health conditions than ourselves. It’s really important that we all use common sense. To stay home if you don’t feel well, keep updated with the news and definitely wash your hands regularly. We’d love to see everyone do a proper handwash, including wrists, in between fingers and under nails, for at least 20 seconds. If your hands are getting cracked, use hand cream!

If the country goes into lockdown, we’d find it hard not seeing our friends. Thanks to technology we could stay in touch with our mates using Face Time or sending Whats App and text messages to check people are ok. We’d phone friends too. If Friendship Club events stopped, we’d be lonely, but will log into online events. So, to all of you reading, be safe and stay well.

The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset