New St Michael's Hospice shop

This exciting new venture for the Hospice will be marked two weeks later, on March 18, by an official shop opening by the Mayor of Bexhill, Councillor Patrick Douart.

Situated near the seafront at 79, Devonshire Road, and close to the De la Warr Pavilion car park, the shop is attractive, light and airy, and offers a broad choice of goods.

Volunteers Julie Cham and Kath Erends have been appointed supervisors for the shop.

Trading Manager for the Hospice, Chris Jones said: "The support we have had from local people for this new venture has been terrific and heartwarming and we are very grateful. "There was a great response following an appeal for volunteers resulting in a number of new volunteers as well as some of the volunteers coming back to us who used to help run the Pine Tree restaurant which had to close last year.

"Our entire shop fitting was generously donated by local companies and people in Bexhill, Little Common and other areas of Rother."

This new venture completes Michael's Hospice portfolio of nine shops across the region and enables the Hospice to have a continuing presence in Bexhill. The Hospice shop work goes a long way to support Hospice services that care for over 4000 individuals and their families each year in Bexhill, Hastings and Rother.

St Michael's costs 5 million each year to run, and 3.2 million of this is fundraised from voluntary sources. The shops are a crucial part of the fundraising effort, and are needed more than ever now as St Michael's currently faces a 220,000 deficit.

"We want this shop to be an integrated part of the Bexhill community, working with other charity shops in the town," said Chris Jones. "It presents a great opportunity for us to raise much needed funds."