Hospice opens new coastal village shop this month

A West Norfolk charity, which has been providing compassionate care for 40 years, is opening a new retail shop in a coastal village.The Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House, is opening in Burnham Market this month and is looking for volunteers to help run the premises in Overy Road and also for donated items.The shop will be open seven days a week, offering the same range of high-quality goods as its eight other shops at King’s Lynn, Hunstanton, Snettisham, Downham Market, Fakenham, Swaffham, and Wisbech.

All sales will help fund care and support for people with life-limiting conditions and their families.Sally Chandler, Tapping House regional retail manager, said: “As a charity serving families in and across West Norfolk and surrounding areas, we’re delighted to be opening in this beautiful village. Shoppers can expect a boutique shop, right here on their high street. Our focus will be on clothing accessories and bric-a-brac and we already have a great range of stock ready to go.”A purchase from one of the shops, however small, makes a huge difference to the charity’s vital work – an item costing £10 could fund a mobile phone for a month for the Rapid Response Team, buying something for £25 could pay for laundry for a day, and £39 could pay for the Hospice at Home fleet to operate, enabling visits and patient collection. The new shop is looking for good quality items including clothes, bric-a-brac, toys, jewellery, DVDs, CDs and vinyl, retro and vintage clothes and small electrical items.These can be taken to the shop between 9am and 5pm Monday to Saturday and 10am and 4pm on Sundays. Each year the hospice cares for 1,500 patients at the end of their lives and supports a further 3,000 families.It provides rehabilitative therapies, a nine bedded inpatient unit at its Wheatfields site in Hillington, Hospice at Home services, bereavement and support services and much more.The hospice receives less than 30 per cent of the income required to run these services from the NHS with the remainder funded through charitable activities and donations and it costs £3.5million each year to deliver its services. In the past financial year, its retail shops generated a profit of more than £630,000.Tapping House also needs donations of good-quality furniture which can be collected free of charge – contact the retail team via the website www.norfolkhospice.org.uk/forms/furniturecollection or call 01553 767752. The hospice also trades via its eBay shop.Anyone wanting more details about volunteering at the new shop is asked to email: volunteers@norfolkhospice.org.uk or call Becca Walls on 01485 601700.