League of Friends of the Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham

Charity Shop

The League of Friends for the Queen's Medical Centre at Nottingham University Hospital, founded in 1979, works to support the QMC through fundraising and volunteer activities. The organisation currently has around 35 volunteers.

The Friends fundraise in both traditional and untraditional ways. They hold events (such as coffee mornings or quiz nights) to raise money as well as conduct more straightforward appeals for donations; the league also gets a commission from sales of paintings from the Nottingham University Hospital's Peggy Greenfield Art Gallery.

The Friends recently set up a charity shop in Keyworth. The shop sells second-hand goods: “Donations of clothes, housewares, bric a brac, books and toys have been very generous. There has been a wide range from small soft toys to tables and chairs, settees and conservatory furniture.” In just over a year, the shop made over £32,000 in profits! The shop is staffed by volunteers, who work with either the steaming and sorting of clothing, or servicing the customers up front.

Volunteers Elaine Fletcher and Jill Wayne scoured the surrounding area for 18 months in search of somewhere to set up a small shop.

“There is a lot to think about when setting up a charitable business,” says Elaine, “and Attend were on hand to guide us through the Charity Commission's requirements.” She added: “Simon Needham, Attend's Regional Development Manager, has taken a real supportive interest in the shop.”

That done, they found a team of volunteers at the Friends to take on the task of painting and decorating before the shop was ready for its first customer. Six months later they have plenty of reason to roll out the ice cream with all the initial debts, lease and solicitors fees paid off and a handsome £10,000 profit ready to hand over to the hospital. It was their previous experience, says Elaine, which taught them how helpful it can be when raising money if the general public can see exactly where their cash is going.

And it is that local link, she says, which makes their shop so successful. “Many people will come in and say, ‘I owe the Queen's Medical Centre such a lot’ and they donate because they feel that they have been given a second chance.” One local artist who received treatment there makes a regular contribution by keeping the shop fully stocked with hand-painted cards. Not to mention the regular customers who pop in three or four times a week to see the new stock and those who donate their unwanted furniture, clothes, books and odds and ends.

But the shop is no jumble sale, stresses Elaine. It is careful quality control that keeps standards high and the customers flocking in. “People always say when they come in, it doesn't feel like a charity shop. The quality is very high and everything is steamed clean before it goes on sale.” Any donations that don't make the grade are sold on to recycling firms for extra cash.

But far more important than any other donation is the time given freely by the team who run the shop day to day, says Elaine. “We're absolutely shattered but it gives us all a thrill. Without them we couldn't have done it. They are mostly retired people who like to give something back to the community.”

Furthermore, benefactor has left the Rheumatology Department a legacy of £120,000. This is being used to propel the QMC Rheumatology Department to lead its peers.

Quotes

“We are a group of ordinary people from all walks of life who want to give something back to the community.”

Contact

Alison Scrimshaw
0115 925 6392
max@maxscrim.f9.co.uk
QMC League of Friends Website