FOR DECADES Paul Damari was known as Worcester’s Weatherman. With regular appearances in the Worcester Evening News and subsequently the Worcester News, as well as broadcasts on BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester, Paul attained local celebrity status. There was even a Paul Damari Fan Club for a number of years.

Born and bred in Worcester, the 66-year-old - who had his own weather station and kept records of the city’s temperatures, isobars, proximity to the jet stream and all other meteorological information for more than 40 years – jokes that his interest in weather started when he was in his mother’s womb.

When his mother was carrying him, he said, lightning struck the Damari house in Brickfields and his mother had a lucky escape. The paper at the time said the shock turned her hair white but Paul playfully points out her hair was blond and the soot came down the chimney turning it black.

During his school days at Cherry Orchard Primary and then Nunnery Wood Secondary, he was generally the first pupil to volunteer for “weather watch”. He went on to study at Pershore Horticultural College and worked in the Worcester City Council Parks Department for 19 years, concentrating his expertise on Gheluvelt and Cripplegate Parks.

He left the council to set up his own floral decorations business and later established a landscaping business. But he started taking weather recordings in 1968 and his fascination with the local climate grew until he became a full-time independent weather forecaster in 1982 – providing weather forecasts for businesses and individuals in the UK and aboard as well as the local media.

In 2012 Paul decided to hang up his weathervane, after 30 years in the business. His wife Sandra had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2004 and he wanted to leave the pressurised world of weather forecasting while in good health and devote more of his time to her and enjoying days out together.

At that time he also had a vision of creating a space somewhere nearby he named Angel Wood Rise. The aim was to establish an area with a sense of peace and tranquillity where people could relax, enjoy nature and leave the pressures of the modern world behind for a while.

But his ideas didn’t exactly go according to plan initially. “Sandra’s MS got progressively worse. I was also looking after Sandra’s dad who lived with us and my dad developed Parkinson’s and dementia. We have just lost him.”

On top of all that Paul discovered his own health was under severe strain. “I developed a leaky heart valve. I had to go the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to have a new aortic valve. Then I had a hernia.”

But with all the clouds came a silver lining. Due to various visits to hospital, he met many people going through the same thing.

“I started to think that there are a lot of people who are suffering in silence. You end up meeting them and talking to them when you go to hospitals,” said Paul.

Through these encounters and interest in his Angel Wood Rise Facebook page, Paul started a companionship group at his home in Northwick using his garden and his converted weather station as a base where people can go along and talk about their problems, make friends and have some fun.

“Slowly people started to come and they have become good friends. It has gained momentum and I reckon we have had a couple of hundred people come to the group in a couple of years.” He said some don’t stay long and others keep coming.

“We call the old weather station Northwick Towers Sanctuary,” Paul joked. Despite the catalogue of personal and family health issues, Paul’s warm sense of humour remains intact.

“People can come for coffee, chat and a laugh. They can pour out what they are going through. There is definitely a need for a group where they can come and mix with people. Some are going through bereavement, dealing with bullying or illness like cancer. It is working and I am very pleased.

“If someone is in dire straits, we are there - a group of us are there to help. The group befriends people who are bereaved, lonely, bullied, carers, child carers, single-parent families, homeless and less well off. They are just in a state of darkness and do not know how to get out of it,” he said.

“We talk about these things and they open up to one another and it really does help and it enables them to realise that they are not the only ones. It is not a big organisation and there is no pressure. People can just talk. It is very down to earth.”

Sometimes the group has a laughter therapy evening or people can go for a walk together and perhaps visit a garden centre.

Paul, who also helps at Maggs Day Centre in Worcester and has raised funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Macmillan Cancer Support, added: “We think laughter helps a lot. We have reiki and holistic things to compliment medicine. It is all part of healing. We do things like going for walks or to a garden centre and it help build up people’s confidence again.”

He said he hopes the group can link up with other organisations helping people in need like Citizens Advice.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the companionship group can ring Paul on 078565 14308.