This Hospice Care Week, we’re focusing on the amazing job our shops do to help us fund our vital services. Hospice Care Week this year is focusing on charity retail, because hospices often get more income from selling second-hand items than they do from government funding.
At Martin House, we have 13 shops across our region, along with our furniture warehouse and show room at Thorp Arch, and our online Ebay store.
Last year our shops made just over £2m to help fund our service – as it costs around £10.5m to run Martin House each year, this is a significant proportion of our running costs. It’s the equivalent of running Martin House for 70 days.
While Martin House is based in Boston Spa, we support families across West, North and East Yorkshire, so our shops – stretching from Skipton in the west, all the way to Beverley in the east – provide a window to the hospice and the care we provide.
And most importantly, it provides vital funds to help ensure we can continue to care for children and young people with life-shortening conditions and their families.
You never know what you might find at a charity shop
Our shops sell a huge range of items – clothing, shoes, accessories, toys and games, homeware, books and media – and our furniture warehouse also sells quality second-hand furniture, electrical items and white goods.
More unusual or valuable donations go to our eBay store – the most unusual item we’ve sold is a tent designed to be fixed to the side of a mountain!
The average black bag of donated items will make £45 – which could help pay for a counselling session for a bereaved family.
Adding Gift Aid to your donation means we can also claim an extra 25p for every £1 we make, and makes a real difference to the income we raise.
Our shops don’t run without your support – we rely on donations of quality, pre-loved items to keep our shops stocked, and we couldn’t run our shops without the help of our lovely volunteers, who give up their time to ensure we can raise as much money as possible.
How can you help? By shopping in our stores, and donating your unwanted items to us. Or if you have even a few hours to spare, you could volunteer in your local Martin House shop – we have loads of different roles available.
You can find out where your nearest shop is and how to support us here: Visit our shops – Martin House.
The post Hospice Care Week 2024 appeared first on Martin House.