Hello and welcome to the community I only play bubble wich 3 so will help were I can with any issues you may have but I find that strange there is no reason for not sending lives as you get the on screen prompt to help I think some people believe they are giving their lives away but it doesnt work like that your lives remain. I always send lives a lot of times a day and do get some back but very few so I know this to be true all you can do Is keep sending and it may eventually trigger a response 🙂👍
I always ask if people are playing on Facebook or through the Kingdom @Aliceanne_74, as Facebook have permissions that expire every 30 days. Sometimes it blocks the requests from going through so the best thing to do would be to cancel the permissions, then regive them again. If you are, I can give you the link to explain how if needed.