Lover Repair Café raises over £10,000 for Stars Appeal
Salisbury Hospital charity gets boost from volunteers with love of fixing!
South Wiltshire's answer to the TV show The Repair Shop are celebrating a milestone achievement when it comes to fundraising.
Lover Repair Café have raised over £10,000 for the Stars Appeal.
Organisers handed over their first cheque to the Salisbury District Hospital Charity in May 2020 and the support has continued.
The scheme begun operating in March 2019 and is run by a team of retired volunteers who love fixing things.
Since then almost 3,000 repairs have been carried out with items dropped off at the Village Hall.
The pandemic didn't stop the team either with one of the volunteer's garages being used!
Everything from electrical appliances, computers, furniture, ceramics, clocks, bikes, brass-work, lawnmowers, metal-work and toys have been fixed, stopping them from ending up in landfill.
People bringing items in for repair are asked for an optional donation, which, after the running costs of the Café have been met, are donated to charity.
At a special event held on Friday (11th February) organisers celebrated having raised over £10,000 to date by presenting Salisbury Hospital Intensive Care Unit Consultant and Stars Appeal Ambassador Dr Duncan Murray with a ceremonial cheque for £10,600 and asking him to cut a specially made cake.
At the request of the Repair Café organisers, all of the money raised has been donated to the Stars Appeal Staff Fund, to support the work the charity does for benefitting thousands of Salisbury Hospital staff. This includes counselling sessions and chaplaincy support, morale boosting care packages and hot meals, outdoor spaces where staff can relax, free Wi-Fi and providing specialist education and simulation training.
Dr Duncan Murray said
“We are hugely grateful to the Lover Repair Café and all their volunteers and customers for their committed ongoing support. From my experience on the Intensive Care Unit I can tell you first hand that the extras the Stars Appeal provides make a huge difference for staff working extremely hard in very challenging circumstances. To know we have the support of our local community means a huge amount to each and every one of us.”
Maurice Caustick, Chairman of the Lover Repair Café said
“We’ve chosen to support the Stars Appeal because it shows our connection with the Hospital and confirms our commitment to the hospital staff. We’re very proud to have completed 2855 jobs and raised over £10,000 for the Hospital’s Stars Appeal and it's all down to our wonderful volunteers.”