A charity shop in Cleethorpes has raised £20,000, which will benefit bowel cancer patients at Grimsby hospital.
Sea View Cancer Charity Shop has been drumming up funds for the Health Tree Foundation (HTF) – the hospital’s official charity – for the last four years.
The money has been raised through donations customers have made and sales made through the store. It will be put towards specialist equipment, which will help bowel cancer patients who need treatment during a very difficult time.
Prue Stillings, 72, one of the volunteers, who has worked at the store since it opened in the late 1970s, said: “It is fantastic that the money we have raised will go towards helping cancer patients at the hospital. I have had cancer myself three times so I wanted to give something back to people who have been through what I have.
“All of the ladies that work in the shop are volunteers and one of them is 94! We did struggle during the pandemic as we couldn’t open but things have got better recently. We received a grant from the council which really helped us. We are hoping to continue to raise more money for the charity in the future.”
The shop has previously raised more than £20,000 for HTF’s Rear into Gear appeal, which went towards new state-of-the-art equipment for the Colorectal Team at Grimsby and Scunthorpe hospitals.
Miss Stillings, who has previously been invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen thanks to her fundraising efforts, added: “We started raising money after I lost my father and brother in the same week to cancer. We used to be based on St Peter’s Avenue but eventually moved to Sea View Street. We have raised more than £1 million over the years for various cancer causes.”
Lucy Skipworth, Grimsby Community Champion for HTF, said: “I am delighted that the Sea View Cancer Charity Shop has raised this incredible amount of money for us. It will really help our patients who use our cancer services.”
If anyone wishes to make a donation, please pop into the shop.
