Crowd funding appeal has taken just five days to aid a threatened Southampton book store

The community has rallied together to help save a book store from the threat of closure.

October Books, Portswood Road, was struggling to find the money to pay for its rent after clearing previous debts and receiving a lack of turnover in recent months.

The non-profit organisation, run by a team of Clare Diaper, Jaquie Daniels, Joey Jones and Jess Haynes, set up the crowd-funding project to try to help find the money- but was shocked to receive such massive support.

Within five days the store had earned over the £2,500 needed to cover its rent, following donations from more than150 people.

“We’re very surprised by the positive response, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support of the whole community,” said Jess.

“We knew that we had supporters who come in regularly and buy books but we didn’t think we would earn the money so quickly. The sum raised will help the store take time to discuss how to become more viable in the long term.”

The team are hoping that with extra funding they will be able to update their computer systems and fix minor maintenance issues.

Joey said: “A new system would allow us to have a better account of our records, because at the moment we have a system which is 30 years old with 30 years worth of small mistakes.”