Hospice delivery drivers make some unusual discoveries

Most days it is sofas, dining tables, beds and occasional furniture donated by the public that Mark Jones and Mark Thompson collect and deliver to the hospice’s secondhand furniture stores.

But there have been some more unusual donation - including a bank savings book showing a balance of £12,000, hidden in he drawer of a bureau.

Mark Thompson, 46, from Wombwell, said: “We drove straight back to the house with it. The person it had belonged to had died and his relatives had been looking high and low for the bank book for days.”

A less pleasant find was a pair of false teeth stuffed down the back of a sofa donated to the hospice to sell on.

The hospice needs to raise £2.2 million a year to operate.

Head of retail, Kim Loughborough said: “Often relatives of patients who died after receiving hospice care donate some or even all of their possessions. It’s their way of saying thank you and it helps our furniture shops in Montgomery Square, Wath, and our brand new premises on High Street, Maltby, make a good income for the hospice.

“Our shops have been going for six years and enjoy a steady trade, serving around 700 customers each month.”