Theme: Shops

We’re asking people to consider donating any unwanted Christmas gifts this year to help people with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.

We’d love local people to drop off any new and unused bottles, gift sets, chocolates, or other unwanted presents to our hospice this January.

Eamonn O’Neal, Chief Executive of St Ann’s Hospice, explained:  “Everyone is guilty of putting one or two gifts that they receive over the festive season into a cupboard to gather dust for the rest of the year.  We’d love to help local people feel better about that, whilst putting the items to good use too.

“These kind of gifts are great for us to use in fundraising raffles, fairs and other events, and some items can also be sold in our hospice shops across Greater Manchester or online.  Every penny raised helps us to care for the thousands of local patients and their families we support each year so please do consider dropping off any unwanted or unloved items as we would really appreciate them.”

Donations can be dropped into the basket provided at our hospice sites in either St Ann’s Road North, Heald Green, or in Meadowsweet Lane (off Peel Lane), in Little Hulton, or can be taken to any of our fourteen charity shops.

Bring in your old furniture and let Cath Goodwin’s artistic skills give it a new lease of life.

She has already upcycled tables, pictures and mirrors which customers donated to our Little Hulton charity where she is the manager.

Proceeds from sales go towards providing vital care for our patients and Cath’s request is for more unloved items so she can apply her creative talents.

Cath only discovered her artistic abilities after she had a stroke four years ago. She had been a lecturer in English Literature at Bolton University where she had once studied, gaining a first-class degree.

Cath explained: “I lost all my language skills when I had a stroke and couldn’t do the simplest crossword. Someone suggested I went to art class and I suddenly found that I was quite good at painting and discovered an alternative way to be creative.

“I strip, paint and varnish items applying decoupage paper to the surface to renovate the furniture. I do it all in my spare time at home and have sold quite a few items, raising money for St Ann’s.

“I’d ask anyone to get in touch with the shop if they have any small item of furniture that they want to donate and they’d be helping the hospice. Thankfully, I’ve recovered quite well from my stroke.”

Cath began her career as a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at the old Pendlebury Children’s Hospital and was then a matron at The Maples, a specialist unit attached to Salford Royal Hospital.

*Contact our shop on 0161 799 7362 or email littlehulton@sah.org.uk