On my way home last week I put my ipod on a random song selection and before I knew it a John Barrowman cover of "Feeling Good" was blasting in my ear. Frightened out of my mind I accidently elbowed the passenger sitting beside me on the train.

The previous week I had given my mum a present of his songs on a CD for Easter after downloading them from itunes.

A rather sweet gesture for my beloved ma turned into an audio nightmare for me.

A man last week advertised for a drinking companion for his 88-year old father so that he could escape the clutches of elderly loneliness and boredom. It's amazing what we'll do to please our parents although this is a rather dubious example of how to care for the elderly.

Jack Hammond of Cadnam, Hampshire, has recently moved to a nursing home near his son Michael.

Michael put in a 25p advertisement in a local post office window for a fellow drinker for his dad.

There were a number of responses probably due to the fact that Michael was willing to give the chosen candidate £7 an hour to entertain his father.

I am very critical of this idea. Firstly, it's frankly going to invite all and sundry to what essentially is a job rather than a social outing. I had visions of the chosen one sitting in a pub on a Sunday evening for an hour and ten minutes and charging for a full two hours.

It also saddened me that the son had to go to these lengths to make sure that his father was happy. It would be much better if the dad could meet someone through mutual acquaintances for a pint and a chat.

What rankled me the most was why does the son not go to the pub with his father himself? Making time for your parents is an important thing that we forget to do by taking their presence and love for granted.

This story reminded me of an Italian man dubbed the 'lonely professor', called Giorgio Angelozzi, who was adopted as a grandfather by a family in Rome in 2004.

He was a philosophy teacher whose wife Lucia had died and as a result he wanted some type of family to fill the void of his twilight years.

He advertised in a newspaper and as would be expected received countless responses from around the globe ranging from millionaires, families who wanted a tutor for their children and even pop stars.

In England we have Age Concern and the Citizen's Advice Bureau who work for the elderly but in Italy they have a Pensioner's Party, whose leader Carlo Futuzzo won a seat in the European Union.

Care for the elderly should be championed by political organisations and voluntary groups but the crux of the problem lies on our own doorsteps.

The elderly should be not just be the government's responsibility but important for each and every member of the community.