RTE's Claire Byrne, who is patron of Offaly Hospice, was pictured in February of this year with Offaly Hospice Directors Edward Delahunt, Liam Butler, Professor Humphrey O’Connor (Chairman), Barbara Doyle and Phyllis Howlin, CNS Laois Offaly Palliative Care Team, on the site of the proposed Midlands Hospice.

RTE's Claire Byrne to open Offaly Hospice Shop on Friday

Geraldine Grennan

Published: Tue 17 May 2022, 5:27 PM

Offaly Hospice patron and Laois native, Claire Byrne, will travel to Tullamore this Friday, May 20, to perform the official opening of the new Offaly Hospice Charity Shop on Main street at 2pm.

The RTE presenter will meet with representatives of Offaly Hospice and volunteers in the new shop, which is located directly opposite the Lidl supermarket in a premises formerly occupied by the Petworld store.

The Offaly Hospice charity shop re-located to Main street from its original premises on Offaly street in recent weeks, and is open six days per week, Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 5pm each day.

With ample parking at the new premises and longer opening hours customers are welcome to come in and bag a bargain from the ladies, mens and children departments.

The 3,00 sq.ft. shop, which is twice the size of the former shop on Offaly Street, also sells books, vinyl records, bric a brac, kitchenware and many more items, and customers are advised to call in to browse through the many bargains on offer.

The Hospice Shop is also accepting donations of items for all of its departments, and would also be happy to receive small pieces of furniture.

The support of the public is vital to the success of the new Offaly Hospice Shop, with all profits going directly to the Midland Hospice Building Fund which was set up in 2019 by Offaly Hospice Foundation to raise funds to build a much-needed Hospice Unit for the people of the Midlands.

The Offaly Hospice group are indebted to a number of staff from Cardinal Health, Tullamore who gave of their time voluntarily to paint the new shop on Main street, including Marty Lynch, Mick Fletcher, Pat Burke, Cian Byrne Pratt and Brendan O’Brien.

The charity has also expressed its thanks to Fiona Perdisatt and Kevin Byrne, also from Cardinal Health, for their on-going support and for bringing the Cardinal Health painting team together. Offaly Hospice are looking forward to building a partnership with Cardinal Health in the future where their employees can get involved with, contribute and support Offaly Hospice.

Volunteers at the new Offaly Hospice shop are looking forward to building strong links with the local community, with the end goal of all monies raised being the long-awaited construction of a new Hospice for the Midlands.

Anyone seeking further information on the new Offaly Hospice charity shop can call Chris on 083 0994754.