Hospice shop is big success
Kettering Cransley Hospice shop made �140,000: l-r Volunteers, Angela Wright, Sue Lewis, (manager), and Fran Stone, 06/01/12
A charity shop has raised more than £140,000 in its first two years – enough to keep a hospice open for almost 100 days.
Cransley Hospice’s charity shop in Horsemarket, Kettering, raised £65,000 in its first year and is on track to raise another £80,000 by its second anniversary on February 1.
Fundraising manager Diana Patrick said: “We are absolutely thrilled. It’s a phenomenal amount of money.”
The nine-bed hospice, which serves the north of the county, costs £1,500 a day to run because of the specialist palliative care it provides.
Mrs Patrick put the success of the shop, which was expected to pull in £50,000 a year, down to the quality of its stock, the friendly service of its 30 volunteers and three paid staff – and the bus stop outside.
She said: “The other day I saw a full bus stop outside, everyone get off and walk towards the shop. I thought they can’t all be going in, but they did.
“They couldn’t all fit in so some of them waited outside.”
The hospice will hear in the next fortnight whether it can open a coffee shop in the empty shop next door. If Kettering Council gives the go ahead, it will open up storage space at the back for more stock and the shop will have to take on more volunteers.
Mrs Patrick said the shop also provides another place for people to donate to the hospice or buy tickets for events.
Manager Sue Lewis, whose husband was cared for by the hospice, said: “It has been a great success. We are very pleased.”
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Weather for Kettering
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
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