The St Elizabeth Hospice shop in Great Yarmouth officially re-opened at 10am on Wednesday April 10 – by a patient who donated items a day before the blaze broke out.
The Hospice shop in Kings Street closed after a blaze broke out in the early hours of October 30 2012 – just four months after it had opened.
All the stock, which had been donated by local people including Hospice patients and their families, was ruined.
The shop itself was so badly fire-damaged that it had to shut while repairs were carried out.
The money made through the Hospice’s shops is vital in helping fund local services to patients and their families.
Patient Archie McCue, 58, of Great Northern Close, Great Yarmouth, donated items to the shop a day before the blaze broke as a thank you for the care he has received – but they went up in smoke and could not be sold.
He was invited to cut the ribbon and encouraged local people to donate goods to the shop to help fund care for people like him.
He said: “St Elizabeth Hospice has given me brilliant care and I don’t know where I would be without this wonderful service. The charity needs to raise a lot of money to provide its services free of charge in Waveney and Great Yarmouth and one of the ways local people can help is by donating their items to the shop or buying goods from it.”
Please drop off donations – such as clothes, accessories, books, DVD, bric-a-brac – to the shop weekdays between 9.30am and 4.30pm.
Jason Rudderham, area retail manager for St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the amount of stock donated by the people of Great Yarmouth in recent days and would like to say a big thank you to them for their support. We hope lots of people will continue to support it by donating goods, volunteering or coming to browse or buy what we have on sale.”
St Elizabeth Hospice is investing £2.2m over three years providing services for patients living with a progressive illness in Waveney and Great Yarmouth.
It currently offers services in Gorleston, Ditchingham and Beccles as well as at the new Louise Hamilton Centre in Gorleston.
If you would like to find out more about volunteering please call 07713 287435 or email volunteer@stelizabethhospice.org.uk. To see our current volunteering vacancies, please click here.