The story of our most unusual donation

This Hospice Care Week, we are celebrating the role of our charity shops in raising vital funds that make the free care we provide possible. Alongside the invaluable support of staff and volunteers who help in our shops, the donations we receive are a crucial aspect of income generation, allowing us to continue providing our services.

We are fortunate to receive an array of pre-loved donations but sometimes something a little more unusual turns up among the bargains and treasures. Here, Sharon Gills, Head of Retail at the Hospice, shares the story of one such item, which resulted in the bomb squad being called to the leafy town of Oxted after a Hospice charity shop manager discovered a ‘hand grenade’ in a bag of donated clothes.

The staff member at Hospice in the Weald’s popular charity shop in Station Road East discovered the unusual item as she sorted through a bag of clothes that had been donated to the shop that morning.

The Hospice team has since carried out some research and discovered that the inscription on the grenade ‘J.P. & S.’ is Josiah Parkes and Sons Willenhall a lock-making company that produced munitions, including grenades, to aid the war effort in WWII. Sharon added: “We never quite know what we will find in bags of donations but that was certainly one of the more unusual ones!

“We are grateful to everyone who supports our charity shops, which generate more funds for the Hospice than the Government provides. Not only can customers find hidden gems and give items a new lease of life, but it’s also a great way to save money and help reduce thousands of tonnes of landfill waste.”