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| Published: 9th April 2011 |
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 CALENDAR girl and Loose Woman Lynda Bellingham is fronting a campaign for the Hospice of St Francis in Hertfordshire encouraging women to donate their old bras. The hospice recently carried out a survey which highlighted that staggeringly more than 50% of women have bras older than 5 years and 1 in 8 had over 20 bras lurking in their drawers.
Women of all ages, shapes and sizes are being urged to spring clean their underwear drawers and bring their old bras into the Hospice of St Francis’ shops where they will be packaged up, recycled and resold to buyers in Africa and other developing countries where they are a rare commodity.
There is a big demand for second hand bras all over the world. Unwanted bras can raise up to £10 a bag (approximately 10kilos) and are the most valuable form of ”rag” donation that charities such as Hertfordshire’s Hospice of St Francis can benefit from.
Hospices in the UK care for a total of 170,000 people with terminal and life-limiting illnesses every year as well as their friends and relatives. All hospice care is provided free of charge - but it is not free to provide. The Hospice of St Francis has to raise more than £10,000 every day just to keep going.
Lynda Bellingham, famed for taking her bra off in her stage show appearance in Calendar Girls explained: ”You may think your tatty old bra isn’t worth very much but actually to the Hospice of St Francis it is one of the most valuable items you could throw away. Recent statistics show that on average women have four bras lurking in their drawers that are too uncomfortable or the wrong size. Many women have old maternity or feeding bras that they don’t know what to do with. It’s simple. Give them to the hospice - I know I’ll be having a sort out too and what an excuse for a new set of undies!”
A recent survey carried out by the Hospice of St Francis which cares for patients and their families with terminal illness, revealed that more than 58% of women questioned owned up to 10 bras. 74% per cent had never donated their bras to charity before, 72% said they would donate between 1-10 bras to the Hospice of St Francis appeal!
Mina Abban-Mensah, chief lingerie fitter at Debenhams Oxford Street said; ”It is vital to be measured regularly to ensure the right fit, to keep you healthy and to make a huge difference to the clothes you wear.”
If you would like to donate to the Bag up Your Bra campaign simply pop into one of the Hospice of St Francis’ six charity shops detailed below. The Bag Up Your Bra campaign is taking place across Hospice of St Francis charity shops in Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Chesham, Bovingdon, Abbotts Langley and St Albans.
Don’t forget, donations are worth even more to charities if they can claim Gift Aid on your donation. It takes just a couple of minutes for one of the shop’s staff to fill in a form and your donation could generate even more money. For every £1 donated charities will receive an extra 28p from the Government.
For more information simply log onto www.stfrancis.org.uk or pop into one of our shops. |
| About the Hospice of St Francis’ Bag up Your Bra campaign |
| The vast majority of hospices are independent charities. Please note that the Bag up Your Bra campaign is specific to and organised by the Hospice of St Francis in Hertfordshire. If you want to find out more about your local hospice and enquire whether their shops run any similar schemes or accept bra donations, visit www.helpthehospices.org.uk, go to ’Find a local hospice’ to find their contact details. |
| About the Hospice of St Francis |
The Hospice of St Francis cares for people from Dacorum, St Albans, Harpenden, Marykate, Chesham, Amersham and surrounding villages.
It is the only inpatient unit with special facilities that allow patients to be cared for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also helps patients who are seriously ill at home and in day hospice but needs to raise more than £3.3m every year.
For more information about the Hospice of St Francis, contact Claire de Silva on 07885979392 or Abbi Langan on 07515 294632. Claire_desilva@yahoo.com / claire.desilva@stfrancis.org.uk or Abbi.langan@stfrancis.org.uk |
| About Retrograde |
Bras are collected in 10kg bio-degradable bags, with a 4-5 year degrade. Once bras are collected from Hospice of St Francis donation points, they are transported to Retrograde’s recycling plant in Erith, Kent where they are sorted, graded, compressed into compact bales and then exported to Africa.
Frances Reed, General Manager of Retrograde said: ”Used Bras can and should always be reused or recycled, but so few people realise just how important bras can be to charities fundraising efforts. Being very light, we can export many more bras per kilo than general clothing and as bras are technically difficult to make, they are highly sought after in the developing world.”
For more information about Retrograde please contact Frances Reed on 01322 440000
http://www.retrogradeltd.co.uk/hospice.html |
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