Our charity shops raised over £1.5m towards our care
11 Nov 2023 | View all news
We turn your unwanted second-hand items into first-class care
Our hospice is thanking those who shop and donate at our charity stores after they raised more than £1.5 million towards care last year.
We provide vital free palliative care services in Stafford and surrounding areas for people faced with an illness that cannot be cured, which costs £3.7m a year.
Our aim is to enable patients and those close to them to live as fully as possible, wherever they choose, and make the most of the time that’s left.
We have 14 charity shops, seven of which sell furniture and electricals. These items alone make up more than 25% of all sales, which helps bring in over £1m a year.
And those that Gift Aid their donated goods helped bring in an additional £286k last year.
Dedicated team
Each week, our dedicated team of staff and volunteers places 38,000 items for sale in our shops, with beds, sofas, tables and chairs being our best sellers.
And if you need help moving those big items, we offer a furniture delivery service from store to home for an additional charge.
Our charity also offers a collection service for quality used furniture within a radius of at least 10 miles from any of our furniture stores. We may even go beyond this for quality and/or quantity of items.
This means our staff and volunteers are making more than 250 furniture collection trips each week.
Making a difference
Retail General Manager, Simon Dodd, said: “Your donations make a real difference to us and collecting furniture, other large items and electricals is essential for our charity.
“We turn your second-hand items into first-class care. Last year, we helped more than 2,000 patients and their families in our community.”
Caring for the planet
And not only are you helping our charity to provide free care by shopping and donating items at our shops, but you’re also caring for the planet.
According to the UN, fashion is the second-most-polluting industry, coming in right behind big oil, so shopping with us is also more sustainable.
All of our stores now have new till displays which show the average CO2 emissions released when making the purchased items brand new and calculate the total CO2 savings made for the whole sale.
For example, buying an outfit with accessories made of seven items saves around 32.3kg of CO2, which is more than three times an average tree absorbs in a year or driving more than 83 miles in an average car.
So your donations of preloved items or precious time in each of our charity shops make a significant difference. And that unwanted sofa could help cover the cost of a day’s care for a patient.
