As part of Hospice Care Week we’re celebrating the work of our Retail Team at Birmingham Hospice, who play a vital role in raising funds to ensure we can provide palliative care for those with life-limiting illness.
With over 20 shops across Birmingham, we’re incredibly lucky to have had some fascinating and rare items donated by generous members of the public.
One notable example was a pristine condition baby grand piano, which was donated to our original Harborne shop in 2019 by a generous local, who even paid for a specialist removal company to transport it.
The piano quickly became a centrepiece of the store’s display and would be played each weekend.
It sold for £3,500 – a staggering amount of money which helped to pay for the palliative care we provide.
“I just thought ‘what a fabulous feature it would make in our window’,” said store manager Tracy Height.
“It didn’t sell immediately but on a Saturday afternoon people would ask permission to play it and because it was properly tuned it was beautiful to listen to.
“Then one day someone came in and said they wanted to buy it. I explained we could not deliver it, but I passed on the number of the specialist removal company who delivered it, which they then used to take it away.
“I believe it raised about £3,500, which is one of the biggest sales I have been involved in during my time working for the hospice.”
Another memorable Birmingham Hospice donation was a small antique tin box donated to our Heeley Road store. The box was from the famous White Star Line shipping company and featured a picture of one of its steam ships on the front.
The item was recognised by a volunteer, who realised it originally used to contain Cadbury’s chocolate. After a bidding war by collectors, it was sold for over £300.
If you have any memorable items you would like to donate to one our shops, please check out our full list here to locate the nearest one.
