Rutland Healthcare Support Shop are losing their home at Rutland Community Hub, and are appealing to the local community to help them locate new, permanent premises.

The Rutland Healthcare Support Shop are a local charity and have been open since 2008, providing essential supplies to those in need, including but not limited to wheelchairs, crutches, walking frames, toilet aids and bed cradles. 

The shop is run by volunteers and has been housed in one of the hubs owned by Voluntary Action Rutland for the last 14 years. 

Upon the closure of Rutland's Red Cross shop in 2008, the team of redundant volunteers approached VAR with the hopes of moving their organisation into the Rutland Community Hub. This arrangement has run happily since.

However, with Voluntary Action Rutland in the process of closing their current premises, the shop has nowhere to go. 

Pat Morley is a volunteer at the shop and is the driving force behind finding the team a new home. 

Pat said: "It's such an essential shop in Rutland, supplying the public with very low cost disability supplies. A lot of the volunteers have been at the shop since it opened, as they moved over when the Red Cross facility shut down. Their experience is invaluable, but the shop also means a lot to them personally.

"We are a charity. The only way we make money is by selling the goods that people donate from care homes and the like. We rely upon the community in this sense as much as they rely upon us."

Pat also detailed requirements for the new space, which must be on the ground floor, big enough to house their fleet of 11 rental wheelchairs, and have space for or the potential to add shelving units to store their other stock. Ideally, the venue would also have parking. 

Rutland local and user of the shop, Jay Rickards added: "The shop was a huge help when my partner came out of hospital. It would be such a loss if the charity had to close because they can't go anywhere. I don't think people realise how much of an impact the loss of the shop would have in Rutland."

Since the Grantham and Stamford Red Cross shops closed, the Rutland Healthcare Support Shop supply users from across the East Midlands, and have had people travel from Lincolnshire and Leicestershire to make use of the facilities on offer. 

Pat concluded: "It would be a shame if we do have to close as we know that we provide not only for the Rutland community but for those further afield. The volunteers have been here, some since 2008. We enjoy meeting people, and enjoy providing for and being a part of the community." 

Pat can be contacted at the Rutland Healthcare Support Shop, Rutland Community Hub, Lands' End Way, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6RB. 

Alternatively, the phone number for the shop is 01572 720420.

Find out more about the Rutland Healthcare Support Shop online. 

Pat and the team would like to take this opportunity to thank the VAR team for their continued support and the use of their current shop front since 2008.