27th December 2003

St Giles Hospice, the charity caring for local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses, is offering to give unwanted Christmas presents a new lease of life.

The hospice’s twelve charity shops across the region are appealing for donations of gifts that can be sold to help fund the high-quality care the charity provides.

A whole range of items are welcome including clothes, items for the home, books, CDs, videos and toys.

Lynwen Truesdale, General Manager of St Giles Hospice Shops, said: “We all sometimes receive Christmas presents that we can’t find a use for – perhaps items we already have, things that we don’t need, or clothes that are the wrong size or style.

All too often they end up in the back of a cupboard gathering dust, which is a terrible waste.

We’d like to give these unwanted gifts a new lease of life and find them a home where they will be used and enjoyed.

We can promise donated items will not only bring pleasure to others, but also help to fund our valuable work.”


Donations of unwanted Christmas presents can be made at any of the twelve hospice shops across the region, the details of which are as follows:

ALDRIDGE 35 The Square Tel: 01922 744319

BURTON UPON TRENT 192 Station Street Tel: 01283 516218

CANNOCK 2 Wolverhampton Road Tel: 01543 574727

LICHFIELD 17 Tamworth Street Tel: 01543 262996

RUGELEY 4 Upper Brook Street Tel: 01889 576816

SUTTON COLDFIELD Wylde Green, 406 Birmingham Road Tel: 0121 384 7533

SUTTON COLDFIELD Walmley, 39 Walmley Road Tel: 0121 250 2504

SUTTON COLDFIELD Mere Green, 300 Lichfield Road Tel: 0121 323 4645

SUTTON COLDFIELD Boldmere, 28 Boldmere Road Tel: 0121 354 9748

SWADLINCOTE 8 Midland Road Tel: 01283 551591

TAMWORTH 7 Little Church Lane Tel: 01827 66077

WALSALL 40 Freer Street Tel: 01922 720922

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

All proceeds from the shops go to support the work of St Giles Hospice, a registered charity offering high-quality specialist medical and nursing care for people living with cancer and other serious illness, as well as providing support for their families and helpers.

Patients come from across the hospice’s 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.

Care is offered either at the hospice in Whittington, near Lichfield, or in patients’ own homes across the region, where community nurses have made 5,000 visits over the past twelve months.

The range of high-quality, specialist services are expensive to provide, and the hospice relies heavily on donations and fundraising – of which the network of hospice shops is an important element. Last year, the shops and warehouse raised a record £585,000 to support the hospice’s care.