GivingLoneliness aVoice

This week is Loneliness Awareness Week (15–21 June 2026)—the 10th anniversary of a campaign that began with a simple idea: that talking about loneliness might just be the first step out of it. Hosted by the Marmalade Trust, this year's theme is "Giving Loneliness a Voice." And we think that's worth taking a minute.

There's a particular kind of quiet that has nothing to do with the absence of noise. You can be surrounded by people—a full house, a busy office, a room full of strangers — and still feel it. That hollow, slightly untethered feeling that tells you something is missing. Loneliness doesn't always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it looks like scrolling through your phone at 10pm with nobody in particular to call. Sometimes it's eating dinner alone not because you want to, but because that's just how it is now. Sometimes it's the slow realisation that the people around you don't quite know the real you—and you're not sure how to show them.

Research by the Marmalade Trust found that 82% of people have experienced loneliness, yet 62% had never told anyone. Many said it was the fear of judgement that held them back—that admitting to feeling lonely felt like admitting to some kind of personal failure. But of course, it isn't. Loneliness is a natural human emotion. We all feel it sometimes. The shame around it is the problem—not the feeling itself.

Ten years ago, when the Marmalade Trust launched Loneliness Awareness Week with the tagline Let's Talk Loneliness, talking about it still felt difficult for many people. A decade on, the conversation has opened up — but almost a quarter of UK adults still report feeling lonely often, always, or some of the time. The numbers haven't shifted as much as the language has. Which tells you something important: awareness is only the beginning.

Loneliness comes in all shapes

It doesn't discriminate. It can settle in after a bereavement, a move, a relationship ending, or a job changing. It can find you in a long-term partnership where you no longer feel truly seen. It can creep in when you're the primary carer for someone you love—giving everything you have to another person, while quietly losing touch with yourself.

It can look like confidence from the outside. It can feel like contentment on most days. And then something shifts, and the gap between the life you're living and the life you'd choose becomes a little harder to ignore.

The first voice that matters is yours

This year's campaign invites people to share real, human stories of loneliness—and of the power of understanding and connection — so that those experiencing it feel less alone. There's something quietly radical about that. Not a solution. Not a programme. Just: say it out loud, and see what happens. 

We've seen that courage play out in our own community, time and again. The guest who'd spent years as a full-time carer, who finally gave herself permission to have a week that was just for her. The widower who had never travelled without their partner, who found themselves laughing over dinner with people they'd only met three days before. The person who simply wanted to sit at a table where they didn't have to explain themselves — and found, to their surprise, that they didn't have to. These aren't dramatic transformations. They're small, human moments. And they matter.

Connection doesn't have to be complicated

At Solos, we've always understood that what people are really looking for isn't a holiday. It's a reminder that they belong somewhere. That there are people out there who get it — who also want to see the world, try new things, have a proper conversation over a proper meal, and come home feeling more like themselves than when they left.

No single supplements. No awkward tables for one. No explaining why you're travelling alone. Just a community of people who chose to show up—for the trip, and quietly, for each other.

If Loneliness Awareness Week is asking us to give loneliness a voice, then perhaps the most powerful thing you can do is answer back. Not with a grand gesture—but with a small, brave step towards something that feels like life again. You might be solo. But you are never, ever alone.

Join the conversation this week using #LetsTalkLoneliness, and find out more at lonelinessawarenessweek.org.