Former Ribble Valley newsagents transformed into hospice charity shop set to open this weekend

The new flagship, boutique style shop will be the latest to join the hospice's retail portfolio and aims to lead the way in charity retail with a luxury boutique style store, which represents a new movement in ethical retail.

Located at 781 New Whalley Road, Blackburn, it will be selling pre-loved and new clothing, shoes, bags, jewellery and accessories many of which will also be available to purchase online soon. It isn’t, however, just the concept for the new shop that’s special. In fact, the owners of the premises, Adrian Swindlehurst and his wife, Lisa, have a particularly special link to the hospice having previously run a newsagent and post office from the location for over 20 years.

Recently, when the time came for them to retire, they could think of no better way to support their local hospice than to offer the premises for rent.

Adrian describes how the hospice has a "special place in his heart" after his mother, Maddalena was cared for there, initially as a day patient going in every Thursday, which she thoroughly

looked forward to as it was the highlight of her week and later as an inpatient. Adrian went onto explain that he initially had to talk his mum into being admitted, however, once she was there, she realised it wasn’t what she had at first thought it would be.

“I really wanted the hospice to have the shop and I feel that mum is up there now watching down over us and is proud of how we are supporting the hospice and that gives us great comfort. We wish the hospice the best of luck with their new venture and are confident that they will make a success of it supported by the wonderful community of Wilpshire and the

surrounding areas”.

Instrumental in the re-development process were Darwen-based company Blue Insignia. Liza Ricioppo, director of the company, describes how they were involved in creating a bold new concept for charity retail. She said: "We are so delighted to be given the opportunity to work with such a wonderful charity and would like to thank the team at the hospice for giving our company the chance to make their ideas a reality."

Sharon Crymble, Income Generation and Marketing Lead for the hospice, commented “We are very excited to be opening our flagship store Daisy’s, in Wilpshire this

Saturday and on behalf of everyone at the hospice we would like to thank Adrian and his wife Lisa for enabling this to happen. Also huge ‘Thank You’ must also go to Liza and the team at

Blue Insignia who have taken our dreams and made them a reality. We wanted a store with a difference, one that would give our customers the ‘Wow factor’ and offer them a ‘shopping experience’ and that is absolutely what we have got and I now cannot wait to welcome our first customers inside."

She added: "There are lots of exciting events planned for ‘Opening Day’ including a Fashion Show at 12pm and would encourage you to come down and take a look for yourselves, but don’t worry though if you can’t make it on the day, as we’ll be open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm thereafter."