Bolton Hospice’s Furniture Plus shop is projecting a rallying call for more volunteers as the community floods its shop after reopening.

Safety measures are in place across the store and the public have not held back on picking up some bargains.

However, as with many charity shops, a large number of Furniture Plus’s volunteers are elderly, and still shielding at this time.

The shop opened its doors again after many weeks on June 1 and has welcomed back volunteers, donations, and the community happily since then.

Linda Gibson, store manager at Furniture Plus, said that the volunteers have loved seeing each other again after and that it’s been great to see smiling regulars again.

She said: “The volunteers we have are lovely, they love coming here it’s brilliant.

“We can’t have anyone back who is over 70 who are still at risk, it won’t be until August that the rules are relaxed and we can’t wait to have them back.

“All our volunteers are so loyal. They work so hard for no money doing very laborious work, some even have full time jobs too, but they still give their time for the community.”

Linda described how people feel an extra need to help the hospice as many have had personal connections receive its care.

The Bolton News:

This has become especially important as most events that raise money for the hospice have had to be cancelled, with the shop now a key source of funds.

“Despite everyone struggling at this time, the Bolton public have been great to us and wanting to support us, we want to give something back, we are part of the same team.” she added.

Paul Gregory, who has volunteered at the store part-time for the last two years after partially retiring, also said it’s been great to be back.

“It was a bit strange going back, like returning to school after the summer holidays.

“We all had lots of safety training and we’ve been provided with a lot of PPE so I feel very safe and secure.

“We’ve had lots of customers ring up and thank us for what they’ve got which is very nice as they’ve gone out their way to do it.

“It’s great to be helping the local community and ultimately helping people in terminal care in their last days with their quality of life."

The Bolton News:

The shop has been overwhelmed with the generosity of its customers and donations recently, with more volunteers needed to help this.

Linda said: "Everybody in Bolton has filled up a bin bag for us.

"But we need to get them on the shelves and get some money back into the hospice.

"We are desperate to get more people to volunteer, we think it's a great opportunity for someone as volunteering can be a valuable experience."

Visit boltonhospice.org,uk for more information.