Everyone likes a carol at Christmas, meet our very special one…
“I have been volunteering at the Christmas card shop at St Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury since 2007. I love doing it and I want to carry on for as long as possible.
I worked in fundraising and retail for the hospice before I retired and I’ve been volunteering selling the cards at St Mary’s ever since then; it’s been 11 years so far.
On retirement I needed something to keep busy and St Mary’s is ideal as I like meeting all the different people involved and raising funds to support families who need help.
I work over six and a half weeks at Christmas, volunteering approximately 111 hours and driving 1,000 miles in my car. I can raise approximately £7,000 in the six weeks and I always aim to do the same, or better, than the previous year.
The Christmas cards at St Mary’s in Shrewsbury are very popular and there are more than 40 charities involved. Many people come in and head directly for our hospice cards. Our most popular card this year is called Four Candles with the customers who remember, and loved, the Two Ronnies’ sketch.
I also volunteer from home in March for a month. All unsold cards from the hospice come to me to organise, repack, relabel and then sell as bumper packs which are very popular. They sell very quickly in all hospice shops as well as St Mary’s – and I reshuffled over 1,000 packs for 2018.
I like to keep busy and volunteering for the hospice is a very worthwhile way to do this.
It is nice to give something back and the work the hospice does is fantastic, brilliant, with patients receiving the very best care. I could not do a clinical job myself but I am very happy to raise the money so others can.”
Visit Carol at St Mary’s in Shrewsbury until Wednesday 5th December.
You can also buy our Christmas cards online. Shop now.
Or from one of our 26 community shops. Find your local store here.
