Woman who launched Lancaster hospice's charity shops celebrates 100th birthday

Jean Lever is a key reason the St John’s Hospice shops exist today, after she replied to an advert in The Visitor decades ago asking for volunteers to support St John’s.

As someone who was already volunteering in a charity shop and a well-known organiser of coffee mornings to raise funds for charity, Jean started planning.

She then approached the hospice about opening a charity shop. With their go-ahead she independently visited a local estate agent and was given a shop to rent for one month free of charge.

The shop was empty and Jean had no stock so she started selling clothes donated by patients and raised an incredible £1,000 in the first week of trading.

Spurred on by an advert in the local newspaper, the shop in Common Garden Street in Lancaster got busier and busier.

Needing more volunteers, Jean reached out to families of patients who had been cared for by St John’s to volunteer alongside her, ringing each potential volunteer personally to ask for their support.

It was Jean’s eagle eye that spotted an opportunity for a charity shop at Lancaster University and the shops have gone from strength to strength.

Jean said: "I knew people needed quality clothes that weren’t too dear and people were generous with their donations. There were some very high-quality donations; from £200 shoes to antiques such as Beswick horses, which were kindly auctioned by Blackpool Auction House for minimum costs!

"Meanwhile my husband Cyril helped to collect all the donations from people – it never ceases to amaze how kind people are and how grateful they are for the charity of St John’s.

“I knew and still know the value of something that was nothing to someone, yet something to someone else. For eight years I did all the managing and just sent the rent and running cost bills to the Hospice to pay.

"Watching those kind donations being transformed into money for end of life care was so rewarding. Even when I stepped down from running the shop, I then carried on volunteering!

“Working and volunteering for St John’s had led to lifetime friendships. When my husband sadly died it was my family and hospice volunteer friends that helped me. Death affects us all so it’s been important and rewarding to raise money for end of life care.”

Catherine Butterworth, director of income generation said: “The hospice charity shops have and still do bring in much-needed income for patient and family care and the community can thank Jean for this.

"St John’s Hospice is a charity and relies on its community to raise 75 per cent of the funds needed to provide patient and family care at one of the most difficult times in someone’s life. It was such an inspiration to meet Jean as she celebrated her 100th birthday and to hear her story. From the bottom of my heart – thank you Jean!”