Staff and volunteers at St Giles Hospice Shops are celebrating after raising more than half a million pounds to support the charity’s work caring for local people with cancer and other serious illnesses.

The group raised a total of £510,000 in the year to March 2006, the fourth successive year in which it has raised over half a million pounds.

But the charity shops didn’t manage to avoid the effects of the continued downturn in high street sales and increasing availability of discount clothing, with this year’s figure showing a fall from last year’s total of £543,000.

Now staff and volunteers are renewing their appeal for increased support from the public to help the shops turn the situation around.

St Giles Hospice Shops General Manager Lynwen Truesdale said: "While we are disappointed not to have beaten last year’s figure, raising over half a million pounds is still a fantastic achievement.

“We are extremely grateful to both the general public for supplying and buying items, and to our team of dedicated volunteers and staff.

“Despite launching new initiatives, like our hugely successful e-Bay shop, our network of charity shops is suffering from a drop in sales just like those in the rest of the retail sector.

“And the increasing prevalence of discount clothing stores is also having a negative effect.

“We are appealing to the public to offer as much support as possible by donating unwanted high-quality items - in particular household goods and bric-a-brac - which we can sell and to visit our shops where we are confident they will be able to pick up a bargain.”

The group comprises twelve high street shops, two specialist bookshops, two warehouses, a small shop at the hospice and an internet trading site on e-Bay accessed by visiting www.stgileshospice.com/shops.

All proceeds go to support the care St Giles provides for local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Items can be donated at any of the hospice shops across the region, the details of which can be found by clicking here.

The warehouses – one accepting donations of goods, and the other selling items of donated furniture – are located at the Birchbrook Industrial Park in Shenstone, and can be contacted by calling 01543 483268. A selection of furniture is also available at the Cannock and Wylde Green shops.

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.

Every penny of the proceeds raised is desperately needed by St Giles. The charity spends over £5m 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.