St David's Hospice donation unit in Llandudno Junction opens

The new unit opened today (January 22) at Cae'r Llynen, Llandudno Junction. It is located just off Narrow Lane through the Beech housing development. 

The donation centre replaces the old base in Mochdre which closed before Christmas. It includes a shop, donation centre and e-commerce centre.

Cali Morley, Head of retail at St David's Hospice (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
Cali Morley, head of retail at St David's Hospice, said: "I've been with the hospice for eight years and I have been head of retail for two years. 

"I can't put it into words what it means to open today... it has been a journey. The old donation centre was humongous but we had issue after issue with leaks and cold and it was a warehouse whilst this is a bit of everything. It has taken 14 months to get to this stage.

Bags of donations at the unit (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
"There are four elements to this donation centre. Unit one is our shop space, it is a lovely clean safe space. Unit two is our donation centre drop-off - people will come to the unit, drop off, sign up for gift-aid [if they can] and then it will get sorted in unit two. Once it is sorted, it will be stored in unit three where it is all labelled for the staff to take it. When shops phone for an order to fill their shelves, they will go to unit three / the staff here will go to unit three and pick out what the shop has ordered.

"Anything that the staff believe is valuable in unit two will go into unit four and that is when it goes online for sale. The whole story starts and ends here."

The shop entrance for customers in Llandudno Junction (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
Commenting on what it means to work for the hospice, Cali said: "It means the world. I am here because of a personal situation that I was in 10 years ago. At the time I was working for Anglesey Council social services and I just thought...I've got to be doing more."

Heather Richardson (in purple St David's Hospice jumper) with volunteers Marilyn and Trevor Allpress and Debbie Jackson (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
Talking about how the new unit differs from the Mochdre site, Heather Richardson, shop manager, said: "It is a totally new building, it means so much to the hospice. The building is bright, cleaner and it is fresher. I feel it will be more family friendly and where we are, it can help everyone in the community. 

"This has been in the pipeline for a long time. It has taken four-weeks to get the unit up and running for today - a lot of work has gone on.

The new St David's Hospice donation unit in Llandudno Junction (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
"This is all for a fantastic cause. The care that the nurses give...that is where the money goes and it is absolutely what draws me to work here. The work that they do, it is amazing."

Tracy Watson, e-commerce supervisor (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
Tracy Watson, e-commerce supervisor, has been with the hospice for five years. 

Talking about her role, Tracy said: "There are some items that are worth more online.

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"I shift through, do a bit of research and photograph items and put them on Ebay.

"This new space in Llandudno Junction is fab. It is brilliant to have not only the shop but the donation centre and we are all in one space." 

Inside the new e-commerce unit (Image: Suzanne Kendrick / Newsquest)
The new unit will be open Monday to Saturday. Normal opening times will be from 9.30am until 4.30pm. Telephone: 01492 879058.

Supporters can drop off donations at any time. Booking is not required

To find the unit, supporters are asked to follow the road down to the bottom and they will see a big dark grey unit.