A GRIEVING widow whose husband died in a car crash near Fordingbridge in January is setting up a club for others facing the future alone.

Pauline Haywood's husband Alan was the passenger in a Volkswagen Golf driven by their daughter Annabelle's boyfriend Michael Legg.

The car crashed out of control into a bank and overturned in Southampton Road, Fordingbridge, late at night on January 6.

Both men were thrown from the vehicle. Mr Haywood died while Legg was taken to hospital with three broken ribs, a fractured vertebrae, a ruptured liver and a small brain haemorrhage.

Legg, 28, who is the father-to-be of Annabelle's child, had consumed more than one-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit.

Last month Southampton Crown Court heard Legg had been driving at more than 70mph in a 40mph zone at the time. He was jailed for 40 months.

Now widow Pauline Haywood has formed Second Time Around, a social group for widows, widowers and divorcees.

Designed to be for people aged 40-upwards, she has organised a launch party at the Ringwood Town and Country Museum at Blashford on Saturday, November 3, from 7pm.

The idea was born at a friend's wedding in Bournemouth in August.

"I sat there looking at all these couples and I was thinking, Look at all these lucky people, and I've lost my husband'," she said.

"I decided a long time ago I've got two choices: I sink or swim. I'm going to swim."

She thought more about it, decided to act and advertised locally. That was six weeks ago.

"The phone hasn't stopped since and I'm absolutely amazed," she said.

However, the response has been mainly from women and she wants solo men to become involved as well. A regular meeting night for the group will be decided at the inaugural party.

Contact her on 01425 657464.