Iain Rennie Hospice at Home service, provided by Rennie Grove Hospice Care, offers essential palliative and end-of-life care based around patients and their families, both day and night.
I know several people whose relatives have been nursed by these exemplary nurses and carers, nursed at home which is the wonderful concept of this charity.
One of their main fundraising arms is the charity shop. The Iain Rennie Hospice shop in Downley High Wycombe is just one of many. Downley is a village with a fantastic sense of community and a great deal going on, and is perched on the top of a hill to the west of High Wycombe, with a five minute walk to the Chiltern woods one side, and a twenty minute walk into town on the other.
Mandy Dowling runs the shop with the help of invaluable volunteers and Mandy’s award winning window dressing is a lesson to us all.
Inside is an Aladdin’s cave of Charity Chic, all donated, so that Mandy is never sure what will be brought in, which is part of the fun of working in a charity shop.
I found amongst many other ‘buys’ a pair of shoes, New Look. £5.00. Just the thing for clubbing. Slightly out of my age range, but only slightly, I say, hopefully.
More appropriate perhaps is the Laura Ashley Jacket for £5.00.
I found two beautiful slender white vases for £2.00 each and photographed them beside a neat black bowl with white dots. Sophisticated with clean lines. Mandy and I put them on top of a glass fronted cabinet that had been sold to someone who is going to upcyle it, in a distressed style. It was only £20 and I can’t believe I missed it.
Candle holders are my ‘thing’. These are often brought into the shop but these I left for someone else. I have no more room, and Dick would leave home if they came through the door. These are new, and priced at £4.00 each.
Christmas is coming and the shop is festive, with most of the decorations and Christmas bric a brac for sale. I found these little ‘friends’.
Smiley Face is £1.00, the glamour-puss bear is £2.00 and the book, The First Snow of Winter by Graham Ralph is a snip at 50p. (lovely book. I read it while I was standing there)
Over the last few weeks, Mandy and her staff have been snaffling up cafetieres for the Words for the Wounded LitFest Day on 18th April. Look at my haul thus far. Priced at £3.00 each.
And yes, there are those magical moments you hear about on Antiques Roadshow. Mandy tells me of a dusty old painting that came into the shop and which could have slipped through their hands. But a bit of a rub (much like the gennii’s lamp) and a name appeared – Victoria Crowe who Mandy googled. It sold on ebay for £500.
To make a donation to Rennie Grove Hospice Care: www.renniegrove.org/donate or to volunteer www.renniegrove.org/volunteer
For further information: www.renniegrove.org/standards
There are so many more Aladdin’s Caves out there, doing good whichever way you look. The customers get a fabulous deal, and hours of fun browsing, and the charity gain much needed money. Contact us with tales of your favourite charity shops/stalls and the buys that have brought you pleasure. Contact margaret@margaret-graham.com