Mystery man donates £500

A kind-hearted mystery man has donated £500 to replace the takings stolen from a charity shop within hours of its opening. As reported in the M.E.N., the entire day’s takings were snatched from the store, run for Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice on Oldham Road in Royton. Thugs smashed their way into the safe. It is believed they deliberately targeted the shop after seeing publicity for its launch. To mark the opening, an event was held over the Bank Holiday weekend with a pop-up tea shop. The raid was a major setback for the charity, which took over Grace’s Place in Radcliffe last year.

But a man from Oldham has made a £500 donation.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: “He contacted the shop after seeing the report about the break-in and then went to Grace’s Place with a cheque for £500.

“He wishes to remain anonymous. We are very grateful.”

The man’s amazing gesture has been matched by the public of Oldham. Gareth

Pierce, head of trading for the charity, said: “We have had a great response from the public. They have been making donations of clothing and furniture for us to sell.

“What has been inconvenient is the damage caused to the premises as well by the thieves. Doors and windows have been smashed but we had people in on Easter Sunday to do the repairs and we opened again on Easter Monday.

“You can’t run a charity shop without stock donations and the support in the wake of the break-in has been magnificent.”

The charity raised £60,000 for nurses to start a ‘hospice at home’ service for some of the 650 children with lifeshortening conditions and their families in Bury, Rochdale, and Oldham.Forget Me Not, whose patron is Princess Beatrice, plans to open the children’s hospice in Dumers Lane for in-house and overnight care in October 2018.

The charity has set up a text donation for the Royton Shop appeal:

Text SHOP18 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to Forget Me Not (or SHOP18 £5 to donate £5 etc).