CHESTER-BASED charity the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, is asking people to take on the 40 Days 40 Items Challenge for Lent and donate to their charity shops when they reopen.

Traditionally at the start of Lent you would choose to give something up but this year why not combe “giving something up” with your Spring cleaning?

Simply remove something from your home that you don't use or wear anymore and place it in a box for each day of Lent. Then donate the items you have collected to the hospice!

Caroline Siddall, director of income generation, said: “The 40 days challenge is a great way to start your spring cleaning while getting rid of items you no longer need and supporting the hospice.

“Normally at the end of Lent, we would ask you to donate your 40 items to our charity shops. Due to the lockdown restrictions, our shops are currently closed so we would ask that you please keep hold of them for now and when our shops reopen, we would be more than happy to collect these items from you using our free collection service.”

While the collection service is currently closed, you can save the link to the webpage for when it does reopen again at www.hospicegs.com/collect

Based in Chester, The Hospice of the Good Shepherd serves the communities of West Cheshire, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Deeside and the surrounding areas, caring for patients with life-limiting conditions and supporting bereaved families.

Its dedicated team of staff and healthcare professionals aim to meet the unique physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of those with life-limiting conditions, and to help maintain their dignity. It provides specialist palliative care for people with cancer and non-cancer life-limiting conditions. The hospice offers physical, emotional and spiritual care for patients, as well as family support and bereavement services.

Less than 25% of its £3.8 million annual running costs comes from statutory sources, - the rest comes from fundraising, donations, events and corporate partnerships. It costs approximately £11,000 a day to run the hospice.

Since this pandemic began, Hospice of the Good Shepherd has been raising money through virtual events such as live auctions as well as their weekly lottery draw, where participants have the chance to win £1000 for a cost of just £1 per week. Though fundraising is particularly more difficult due to Government lockdown, they are still determined to keep their hospice afloat.