We will be opening our doors on Monday

SUE Ryder has been planning for the return of its charity shops on Monday 12 April, following announcements by national governments about reopening nonessential shops. Our shop teams are incredibly excited to soon be welcoming back customers into our shops. The charity has been impacted heavily by the coronavirus outbreak as our shops have been closed for many months, and for every week our shops have been closed, Sue Ryder has lost £500,000.

Throughout the past few weeks we have been focusing on placing the safety of our customers, staff and volunteers at the heart of our reopening plans.

We will continue to restrict the number of people in our shops at any one time and encourage social distancing. We will also be continuing with our enhanced shop cleaning and our hand gel stations will be available for our customers to use. In line with government rules we would ask all our customers to wear face masks unless exempt.

We will be able to take donations once again as soon as our shops reopen, and whilst we really do need donated goods, especially any summer clothes your readers may be looking to donate, we are expecting a large influx of donations once we reopen. This means that there may be times when we are unable to accept donations.

We are incredibly grateful for the support and generosity of the local community. It is thanks to their support that Sue Ryder has been able to continue providing compassionate and expert palliative, bereavement and neurological support to thousands of people and their families across the UK throughout the pandemic.

We look forward to welcoming back our customers and donors, old and new and we would like to thank them all in advance for their patience and understanding as we try our best to navigate the challenging environment that we find ourselves operating in.

Martin Wildsmith Director of Retail at Sue Ryder