ON behalf of the retail team at St Leonard’s Hospice, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped to make the opening of our brand new shop on Fossgate a success.

Thank you to all customers who came in to visit us on our first day on Tuesday. It was wonderful seeing lots of new faces and some long-standing supporters too.

Thank you to Ken Stamp for providing musical entertainment outside the shop and to the team from Minster who cut the ribbon for us at 11am.

The retail team have worked very hard for weeks to make the shop what it is so thank you to them for all of their efforts – and special thanks to Dom, our handyman, for doing such a fantastic job in making our dreams for the shop a reality.

We’re very grateful to Ian from Signs Express York for very generously donating our shop front signage free of charge. And also thanks to Carpet Right and Waitrose for letting us park our van for free while we completed work on the shop.

We’re overwhelmed with the support we have received from our new friends and neighbours on Fossgate.

We’ve had cards and good wishes and The Cake Shop opposite made us a fantastic “Welcome to Fossgate” cake.

We’re delighted to be joining this fantastic community, and are very excited for the future of the shop.

Our opening hours will be 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, so we look forward to seeing lots of people over the coming weeks.

Helen Moreton, St Leonard’s Hospice retail manager, York