2nd February 2004

St Giles Hospice is asking kind-hearted brides to help improve the lives of local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Local ladies are being invited to donate their wedding dresses and accessories to the hospice’s network of charity shops, so they can be sold to raise funds to support St Giles’ valuable work in the community.

The outfits will be added to a collection of top-quality second-hand wedding dresses on display in the newly opened bridal room at the hospice’s Swadlincote shop.

St Giles Hospice Shops General Manager Lynwen Truesdale explained: “Every bride deserves the perfect wedding dress, but for some a brand new one is simply too expensive.

We know most wedding dresses are worn just the once and spend the rest of their lives hanging in the back of a wardrobe. That’s why we have launched this new bridal collection.

Anyone donating a dress will not only enable another lucky lady to have the wedding outfit of their dreams, but all the proceeds from the sale will go towards our work caring for local people.”

Donations of wedding dresses 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

All proceeds go towards supporting the work of St Giles Hospice, a registered charity offering high-quality medical and nursing care for people with cancer and other serious illnesses, as well as providing support for their families and carers.

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 nearly 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 just one element.