Bradford grandmother-of-eight Sarasvati Patel has fallen in love with the internet – and now a campaign has started to inspire hundreds of thousands of older people across Yorkshire to do the same.

The 62-year-old ‘silver surfer’ from Horton Grange says the computer is now her best friend after going online opened up a new world for her.

Now Mrs Patel could be in the running to become Age UK’s Internet Champion of the Year for 2013.

Age UK wants to inspire the 713,000 people in Yorkshire and Humberside who have never been online before and hope to do it by appointing an Internet Champion.

Nominations are now being accepted for anyone who is 55 and older and whose life has been changed for the better by learning to use the internet.

Mrs Patel is just one of 70 older people who regularly go along to Age UK’s offices in Bradford, Shipley and Keighley for free one-to-one IT tuition.

The oldest learner so far was a 93-year-old from Shipley and there are 40 people on the waiting list, three of whom are in their nineties.

Peter Wright, who co-ordinates the Bradford IT tuition, said the web was not just for computer geeks or young people but had benefits for everyone.

He said: “We’ve been running tuition here since 2003 and we’ve got about 45 volunteers who come and help from uni students to teachers and a quantity surveyor.

“We can cover all sorts from how to use Word and Excel to doing digital photography and video editing – the sky’s the limit.”

Mrs Patel, who was widowed six years ago, said her children told her to get web lessons so she would stop calling them at work.

“They were only joking but I was lonely and I did call them up rather a lot! I’m not lonely now – I’ve got 300 Facebook friends.”

Mrs Patel has also learned how to use Skype which means she can see her children and grandchildren when she talks to them in Atlanta, USA.

“I feel so much closer to them now, it’s lovely to see their faces. The internet is beautiful. The more I learn the more I love it, I’m so happy. The computer is my best friend, I listen to music on it and Google lots – I’ve been looking up about yoga, that might be my next hobby.”

To enter the Internet Champion of the Year or to nominate someone visit age uk.org.uk/internet-champions or call 0800 169 2081 for an application form. The competition closes on January 10.