Crowland Cancer Fund set to close doors of East Street shop as landlord sells premises
Volunteers are heartbroken and devastated that a charity shop will be shutting its doors later this year.
The Crowland Cancer Fund shop in East Street will be closing for the final time at the end of May after its landlord has announced that he is selling the premises.
Volunteers have described the shop as special and full of laughter but say there are no suitable alternative premises available in the area.
Secretary Libby Jackson has been involved with the charity shop since retiring to the town from London with her late husband Michael.
She said: “Everybody’s devastated and the volunteers are heartbroken.
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“The landlord has been so good to us - absolutely wonderful - but needs to sell the property.
“It is just one of those things that happens but there are no other premises that are suitable.”
The charity, which was founded in 1990, has donated a total of £800,063 to support cancer organisations such as Marie Curie, St Barnabas and Sue Ryder at Thorpe Hall.
Currently there are 36 volunteers who help out at the shop which is open from Tuesday to Saturday.
The last day of trading will be Saturday, May 4 and the items will be cleared by Friday, May 31.
Mrs Jackson and said: “It is such a popular shop so closing it is horrible.
“My husband died three years ago and the shop was something that kept me going.
“People are so generous with donations and we get some lovely stuff and the items will go to another charity in the future.
“We are just doing it day by day.”
Having lived in Crowland for 21 years Mrs Jackson values the community spirit and friendliness she has encountered, particularly with volunteering.
She said: “Three months into moving and retiring from a busy job I felt miserable.
“I found a watercolour group and then the ripples spread out and my circle of friends got bigger.
“You then get the connections and you gradually get to know people.
“I feel I have belonged forever.”
Volunteers have also found a purpose being involved with the charity.
Mrs Jackson said: “It is good for everybody to do volunteering.
“We do it because we love it and we all muck in and it is always full of laughter.
“There are all sorts of reasons that people volunteer and when people come into the shop we hear all sorts of stories some really sad.
“We are all going to miss it terribly.”
Funds from the charity have recently helped the Peterborough City Hospital with a donation of £5,000 to its oncology unit.
Donations have also been made to the Teenage Cancer Trust and towards a special x-ray machine.
On the closure of the shop Mrs Jackson, a former scout leader with 40 years of service, doesn’t know what she will do next.
She said: “I don’t want to sit and do nothing as I am community minded.
“But it is one of those things and I have to live with it.”
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