A HAMPSHIRE hospice has opened another charity shop – and expects turnover from the stores to hit £750,000 in the current financial year.

Oakhaven Hospice, which costs millions of pounds a year to run, now has six stores providing vital income for the Lymington-based facility.

The latest, in Beaulieu Road, Hythe is one of two Oakhaven shops that sell used furniture and soft furnishings.

Mike Denny, Oakhaven’s head of fundraising, said: “Our shops are becoming increasingly important in terms of income. We’ve invested quite significantly in them, particularly over the past five or six years, and that has produced a lot of dividends.

“In the current financial year the shops are likely to produce turnover approaching £750,000.

“Their success is very much down to the tremendous support they receive from the local community, both in terms of people shopping in the stores and donating items.

“The generosity of people never ceases to surprise me. I went down to the new shop and the quality of the furniture is very good.”

Oakhaven costs more than £2.5 million a year to run but only 14 per cent of the cash comes from the NHS. The rest is the result of fundraising and donations, including legacies.

Founded by Phoebe Coates following the death of her husband John, it opened in 1992 and recently underwent a multi-million-pound expansion.

The four-acre hospice takes patients from the age of 16 and has about 180 on its books at any one time.

Many are suffering from cancer but staff also treat people with a wide range of other conditions, including heart disease and various forms of dementia.

About 50 per cent of people admitted to the inpatient unit are able to return home once their symptoms have been brought under control.

Oakhaven opened its first shop in Lymington in 1995 and has since established outlets in several parts of the New Forest.