‘Lonely’ woman makes 300 friends in six weeks by setting up club

“I saw Laura’s post and thought, this is what I’ve been looking for,” Ms Ferguson said.

The two women hit it off straight away.

“If it had only ever been Laura and I, we’d have been friends forever I think,” she said. “But Laura kept messaging me, ‘another’s joined, another’s joined’, and it went from there.”

Jan Gardner, a businesswoman who lives alone, also joined the group.

She said: “I shut the door at five or six o’clock at night and don’t see anyone until the next day.

“So, it encouraged me to do my hair, get my make-up on and enjoy life again.”

Another early member, Alison Law, said: “I live on my own and just needed to get out the house more often. Weekends and during the week, I’d sit on the sofa and that would be it.”