Spot: St Catherine's Hospice New Flagship Superstore

SPOT: a slightly different format to the Roundtable discussions where we Spotlight St Catherine's Hospice.

On Thursday 12th February, St Catherine’s Hospice celebrated the official launch of its new flagship superstore in Crawley town centre, marking a major milestone in community fundraising and engagement. Hundreds of dedicated volunteers transformed the former Sainsbury’s building into a vibrant 8,500 sq ft community retail space, offering everything from bridal gowns and prom dresses to books, golf clubs, furniture, clothing and more.

At the launch event, Clive Hilton spoke with Giles Tomsett (CEO), Philip Ingleby (Chair of Trustees) and Paula McGoveney (Income Generation & Marketing Director) about the remarkable success of the store in its first three weeks of trading. Thanks to overwhelming local support, thousands of donated items were received, with over 15,200 items sold in just the first few days, generating well over £50k in vital funds for hospice inpatient & outpatient care.

The conversations highlighted the charity’s ambitions for 2026, the ongoing need for sustainable funding, and upcoming community fundraising events including the much-loved Midnight Walk in June, Lego & Fire Walking on 6th March, and other ways the public can continue to support the essential work of St Catherine’s Hospice.

Please click on 'Send a text' above & join our Facebook group to share your perspective and suggestions for future topics - Thank you for your interest! Clive.

Transcript

Setting The Community Scene

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Statistics and story soapbox in the community. Supporting local charities, social initiatives, and events that make a refreshing difference. And with me now we got Philip, the Chair of Trustees, here at the St. Catharines Hospice. Fantastic store.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

I mean, it's this enormous store. It's three and a half times the combined size of the other stores that we've got in Quarley. So it's a massive statement.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Just looking around here, there's golf clubs, there's bicycles, there's books, there's bridalware, I mean everything under one roof. Giles Thomsett, the CEO of St. Catharines Hospice.

Volunteers Power The Launch

Funding Gaps And NHS Hopes

SPEAKER_02 0:44

I bet you're proud of the team. I really am. The mobilisation to get this superstore open has involved the whole organisation. So 200 corporate volunteers have been in here, countless numbers of our current volunteers. We have a thousand volunteers who, if you like, are signed up to St. Catharines. Many of them have weighed in and helped, painting walls, cleaning, cleaning kits, making it ready to put out. It's been mab absolutely magnificent. So I'm really proud the superstore is open. We can sell so much here and help a hope community in terms of making things affordable for everybody at a time when we as a hospice have had great difficulty. As you know, we're coming out of a year in which made 40 people redundant. And uh that's terrible. When there's an aging population, there's demand, there's need every single day. Our hospitals up and down the country are caring for people in corridors, yet our hospice, as you well know, is not yet fully functional. And uh it's a modern hospice with in you know the most state-of-the-art facilities for patients.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

At the moment, probably 75% of hospices in the UK are running at a deficit right now, you know, which isn't sustainable. And what we need is a long-term funding solution from the NHS. But in the meantime, you know, we will always continue to need to rely on our community, and this is why this store is so important.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

And I am hoping that as we go forward into the rest of 2026, the NHS, with its absolute commitment from the government to move more care out of hospitals, will talk to us, St. Catharine's Hospice, to do more about how they can mobilise our bets. So I'm feeling optimistic, but optimism isn't the same as an outcome. And uh what we need to do is keep fighting the cause that local people deserve and need better at end-of-life care. And St. Catharine's Hospice, if it was appropriately funded, stands ready to support everybody who's dying that needs us for specialist palliative care.

Affordable Shopping, Mutual Benefit

SPEAKER_03 2:29

It's dear to our hearts, St. Catharine's Hospice. Thank you on behalf of all of the community, amazing work. And if you're listening at home, cost of living, average item in this store. I've checked out some stats,£3.53, average item in this store. So it's a win-win. It's a massive win-win. The cost of living, come to St. Catherine's Hospice, the flagship store, everything's here under one roof, it's good quality kit.

Events: Midnight Walk, Firewalk, Lego Walk

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Well, I've bought some skits myself, so uh tonight, so I I would recommend it to anybody. What did you buy? I bought a shirt and I bought a pair of shoes. Uh so uh I'm very, very pleased about that. Um I want to say that uh you've been very kind about the work we do, but let me say back to you that that work is only possible if the community support is behind us. And uh I have to say the people of West Sussex and East Surrey have really stood up to stand with us in Catholics Hospice in the face of this incredibly challenging cost of living period. We still need that support, it costs 14 million pounds to run the hospice uh every single year. So our aspirations to go on are only going to be possible if people get behind us, and they have been, and I beg them to keep doing that so that your mum, your dad, your brother, your sister, your loved one can get the best of it at the end of life.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

I have to say, Giles, every time I talk to you, always passionate about the work and all the way across your team. Uh, we're also gonna cover the midnight walk coming up in June, and there is the Lego Lego walk and the um firewalk. We're gonna talk about that shortly as well. Thank you very much, Giles.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Thank you. I would uh recommend the fire walk over the Lego walk. That sounds a bit painful to me. Um I'm told the firewalk is one of those things you've got to do in life, and uh I do encourage anybody to come and give it a go. 6th of March, check that out on their website. Thank you, lovely to talk to you, and thank you for all your support. All the best.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Paula McGoverny, who's the director of income generation and marketing, people can also donate monetarily each each month, and that also helps, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Absolutely, yes. Um people can donate in lots of different ways. You can you can do a single cash donation, or you can do a regular gift, or you can take part in one of our fundraising activities and events, you can join our lottery. Uh, there's lots of different ways to donate to us, um all of which are extremely valuable, and you know, we we can't uh continue running the hospital without the support of our local community, so it's absolutely right if we get as much uh money and as much um donated items as we can.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

The midnight walk that's coming up again in June this year. Um Lego walk and firewall on the 3nd of March. Friday on the 3rd of March.

Closing Thanks And Store Details

SPEAKER_00 5:03

That's right, yes. If you wanted to um do a firewall call Lego walk, which is which is arguably harder than the firewall. But yes, you you can join up and sign a sign up and register and uh raise some of the shit money to take a car. And it's uh it's a really fantastic thing that we call back. Um we did we did it uh pre-COVID some years ago and it was very successful. So we're hoping for it to be uh success for us again. So yes, you can sign up and get more information on that on our website.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Thank you very much, Paula. Again, magnificent work you and the team do for our community, St Catharine's Hospice. Uh a couple of fun events and ways that you can get involved and get along, check out the superstore in Crawley, where Sainsbury's used to be, not Martin Spencer, Sainsbury's next door. Yes, that's right. I got it right. Thank you very much, Paula. Have a great Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Take care.