8 November 2005

St Giles Hospice is set to open a new specialist bookshop in Atherstone to help raise funds to support the local charity's vital work caring for local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses.

The new dedicated bookshop, at 111 Long Street in Atherstone, is scheduled to open in late November.

And, with less than a month to go before the official opening, the local charity is appealing for volunteers to help with its latest fundraising venture.

Lynwen Truesdale, St Giles Hospice Shops General Manager, comments: 'Our new Atherstone shop follows on from the success of our hugely popular bookshop in Sutton Coldfield, launched more than a year ago.

' We now need to recruit volunteers to help sort donated books and serve customers in four hour shifts from Monday to Saturday.

' While specialist knowledge is not essential, an interest in books is desirable.

' In addition, we would welcome any donations of high-quality second-hand books to help stock our shelves.'

The new Atherstone outlet will stock a wide choice of value-for-money books including fiction, children's titles, travel and leisure, history, nature, reference and antiquarian volumes.

The shop will also sell a selection of clocks, cameras, pictures, and a range of new goods including stationery and gifts. Greetings cards will be on sale throughout the year, with the hospice’s range of Christmas cards available for the festive season.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the new bookshop can contact the shops head office on 01543 481042. Alternatively, they can call in at North Warwickshire Volunteer Bureau, White Hart House, Long Street in Atherstone, telephone 01827 717073.

The bookshop opening will bring the charity’s network of hospice shops across the region to fourteen. In addition to the dedicated Sutton Coldfield bookshop, the other twelve shops will continue to sell a small selection of books alongside donated and new items.

St Giles Hospice Shops play a vital role in funding the care offered by the hospice, a registered charity based near Lichfield.

The fourteen shops are located in major towns throughout the hospice's patient catchment area, which ranges from Ashby de la Zouch and Atherstone in the east, to Cannock and Walsall in the west – and from Burton and Uttoxeter in the north, to Sutton Coldfield and Coleshill in the south.

In addition, a clothing warehouse for donations and a furniture warehouse offering a wide range of high-quality furniture at value-for-money prices, are based in Shenstone, near Lichfield. A selection of furniture is also available at the Cannock and Wylde Green shops.

Last year the hospice shops raised a total of £543,000 – and every penny is desperately needed by St Giles. The charity spends almost £5million caring for local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses, as well as providing support for their families and carers, and relies heavily on the support of local people to enable its valuable work to continue.