Business as usual for charity shop – but your help is needed

Grace’s Place, Children’s Hospice shop

The Forget Me Not’s Children’s Hospice charity shop based in the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre in Rochdale, which was forced to close this week due to the extreme weather, will be open again this weekend.

The charity is urging people to shop at the shop this weekend, as well as drop off donations of quality, unwanted items, such as clothes, books, toys, household items and furniture. As a one-off, the shop will open on Sunday from 10.30am until 4.30pm to try and raise more money to make up the shortfall from this week.

Gareth Pierce, Forget Me Not’s head of trading, said: “Due to the adverse weather conditions, we were forced to close our Rochdale shop, but thanks to the dedication and hard work of our team and volunteers, we are pleased to say we are open as usual this weekend. We urgently need donations of goods to sell in both stores, as well as people to stop by and support us. All money raised will go towards the new children’s hospice that we’re opening in Radcliffe this autumn.”

A donation page has been set up to encourage additional donations to make up for the shortfall due its shop closures. 

Forget Me Not took over Grace’s Place in Radcliffe, Bury in 2017, and it hopes to open the doors to families later this year. After reaching its first fundraising target of £60,000 before Christmas, the charity is already caring for some of the 650 children with life-shortening conditions and their families in Bury, Rochdale and Oldham through its Hospice at Home service.