Rennie Grove encourages Dacorum residents to think local to help change lives

Rennie Grove is urging people in Dacorum to shop and donate locally to help change lives.

With restrictions easing across the country and people being able to travel more, the hospice that provides care and support for patients diagnosed with life-limiting illness and their families in west Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire is encouraging people to shop local to help it support local people.

Director of retail and trading for the charity, Deborah Gould, said: “It’s undeniably positive to feel a sense of normality returning.

"To be able to see and stay with family and friends we’ve only seen on screen for months. Maybe even to go on holiday again.

"And closer to home, many of us are thrilled to be able to go shopping, eat out, and rejoin our local communities beyond our four walls once again.”

For Rennie Grove, it’s this local community element that’s so important.

Deborah said: “The specialist care we provide is for the local community, funded by the local community. Our nurses couldn’t keep caring without our local communities’ support.

"Underpinning its unique hospice at home care, delivered by specialist nurses day and night in Bucks and Herts, is the sense of community offered by Rennie Grove’s charity shops.

“Whether you come to our shops as a customer, a donor or a volunteer, you’re part of that community. We’re making it as safe as possible so people feel confident and comfortable about returning to our shops in any or all of these roles.

“We know that many people are understandably nervous of taking the first tentative steps back to ‘normality’.

"We’ve all been through an emotional, life-changing journey during the pandemic – no matter what our personal experience was.

"We’ve had to make huge adjustments to the way we live, work and socialise. Now we have to readjust again and we’ll all do that at a different pace.”

Donating items for sale and giving your time as a volunteer has the same positive, life-changing impact, explains Deborah.

She said: “Depending on its size, each of our shops needs between 30 and 50 volunteers donating half a day of their time each week.

"But whatever free time you have, do pop in to a shop near you and have a chat with the manager about getting involved.

"Meet new people, learn new skills and make a difference by volunteering in your local Rennie Grove shop. It could change your life too!

“However you support your local Rennie Grove shop, you can be sure it will give your local community a much-needed boost.”

Here's where you can find Rennie Grove shops in Dacorum:

> Bennettsgate shop, Bennettsgate, Hemel Hempstead

> Berkhamsted Shop and Bridal Boutique, High Street, Berkhamsted

> Henry Wells shop, Henry Wells Square, Hemel Hempstead

> Marlowes shop, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead

> Maylands Shop, Hoskings Court, Hemel Hempstead

> Tring shop, High Street, Tring

> Warners End shop, Stoneycroft, Hemel Hempstead.