Member Article

It's business as usual for charity shops - but they need your help

With Storm Emma causing weather chaos across Greater Manchester this week, Bury-based charity Forget Me Not’s Children’s Hospice is urging people across North Manchester to support its charity shops this weekend after it lost £10,000 in donations due to shop closures across Manchester and Yorkshire.

After days of heavy snow fall and high-speed winds, the charity - which took over Grace’s Place children’s hospice in Radcliffe last year - was forced to close its new charity shop based in the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre in Rochdale this week.

As the worst of the weather has now eased, staff and volunteers are looking forward to being back to business as usual. But after a period of closure, they need the community’s support more than ever.

Forget Me Not is urging people to stop by the retail unit this weekend to support the charity, as well as drop off donations of quality, unwanted items, such as clothes, books, toys, household items and furniture. As a one-off, the Rochdale shop will open on Sunday from 10.30am until 4.30pm to try and raise more money to make up the shortfall from this week.

The children’s hospice charity is also due to start the soft launch of its new shop in Royton on Wednesday 7th March. Staff and volunteers are rallying together this weekend to make up for lost time to make sure the unit, which is located at the old central garage petrol on Oldham Road, can open as planned next week. The team will at the unit on Saturday 3rd March to accept donations from the public.

The new charity shop will officially launch in April on Easter Sunday, but Forget Me Not is opening the doors a few weeks earlier in preparation. The old petrol station will be painted in Forget Me Not’s signature purple to really stand out and will also offer furniture deliveries, collections and house clearances once it officially opens.

Gareth Pierce, Forget Me Not’s head of trading, said: “Due to the adverse weather conditions, we’ve been forced to close our Rochdale shop and were also worried about opening the doors to our new unit in Royton. But thanks to the dedication and hard work of our team and volunteers, we’re pleased to say we’re open as usual this weekend. We urgently need donations of goods to sell in both stores, as well as people to stop by and support us. All money raised will go towards the new children’s hospice that we’re opening in Radcliffe this autumn.”

Forget Me Not has set up a donation page on its homepage to encourage additional donations to make up for the shortfall due its shop closures.

Forget Me Not took over Grace’s Place in Radcliffe, Bury in 2017, and it hopes to open the doors to families later this year. After reaching its first fundraising target of £60,000 before Christmas, the charity is already caring for some of the 650 children with life-shortening conditions and their families in Bury, Rochdale and Oldham through its Hospice at Home service.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Claire Gamble .