St Giles Hospice is appealing for people to donate their unwanted gifts to help boost the charity’s funds in 2008.

By donating new but unwanted items to the charity’s network of shops, local people can help fund the high-quality care St Giles provides, with any profits made going directly towards caring for people living with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Lynwen Truesdale, Director of St Giles Hospice Shops, explains: “Once the celebrations have died down, we all find that we have odd presents that maybe aren’t quite right for us – but they could be perfect for someone else.

"These might include badly fitting clothes, extra pairs of slippers, copies of books, CDs or DVDs that you already have, ornaments and homeware which doesn’t suit your style, and toys and games which won’t be played with.

"Instead of letting them gather dust or hiding them away, people can bring them into any of our hospice shops across the region.

“We are always looking for high quality items to sell and after a season of indulgence it is a great opportunity to start the New Year in a positive way.”

St Giles Hospice has a network of fourteen charity shops selling a wide range of products including items for the home, clothes, books, CDs, videos and DVDs.

Donations of unwanted Christmas presents can be made at any of the hospice shops. For details of the shops please click here.

Items, including furniture, can also be brought to the hospice shops’ warehouse at the Birchbrook Industrial Park in Shenstone on any weekday morning.

St Giles Hospice Shops play a vital role in funding the care offered by the hospice at its facilities in Sutton Coldfield and Whittington between Lichfield and Tamworth, or in patients' own homes across the region.

The fourteen shops are based in major towns throughout the hospice's patient catchment area, 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.

The charity has specialist bookshops in Atherstone and in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield and a warehouse offering a wide range of high-quality furniture at value-for-money prices is 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 £526,000 – with every penny going towards caring for local people and supporting their families and carers.

St Giles spends over £5million every year providing its specialist services. With just a third of this funded by the Government, the registered charity relies heavily on the support of local people to enable its valuable work to continue.