St Barnabas Hospice has received a fantastic 50+ tonnes of donated charity shop items since re-opening in July.
For the first time in their 38-year history, St Barnabas Hospice in Lincolnshire has announced a pause on donations to their charity shops as there is simply no more storage space available. 
Following on from their hugely successful two-week Donation Drive-Thru in which the charity filled their warehouse with 4,150 bags and boxes of donations, they have now estimated that there has been ten times as many donations as there would normally be during July.
The total bags and boxes of items now donated to the charity is estimated to be in the region of 15,000. It has been made possible for the Hospice to accept this incredible amount through the generosity of their charity partners at the Lincolnshire Showground who kindly donated three cow sheds as additional storage.
Caroline Peach, Head of Retail at St Barnabas Hospice said, “Everyone here is so grateful to the team at the Showground for making it possible to carry on accepting donations when our warehouse became full. Our incredible supporters have broken all previous donation records and have now filled up these buildings at the Showground too!
“The last thing we wanted to do was to temporarily stop accepting items, but our Sorting team just can’t keep up with the speed that we are receiving them at the minute. They are also having to wait 48 hours before the items are deemed ‘safe’ to handle under Government guidance (this was previously 72 hours). This is why we are asking people to stop donating for a few weeks while our team of staff and volunteers works through the donations and gets them delivered to our charity shops to be sold.
“My message to our lovely supporters is to keep hold of your donations until we are able to accept them again. It is anticipated that this will be in around four weeks’ time. In the meantime, we would love to see you all shopping in one of the twenty charity shops that we have now re-opened across Lincolnshire!” 
Dane Jakins, Warehouse Logistics Manager added, “We have a brilliant team of volunteers who work alongside us both in the warehouse and in our charity shops. It would be a huge help if more people are able to come forward and give just a few hours of their week to help sort through donated items or to help in their local charity shop. We would grateful receive offers of help from anyone aged 16+, whether it be for the short term or long term. You can also volunteer in one of our shops if you are aged 14+ and completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award.”
To find out more about volunteering for the Hospice and register your interest, visit www.stbarnabashospice.co.uk/volunteer.