YP Letters: Why it's not so easy to donate to a good cause

From: Fiona Lemmon, Clifton Byres, Clifton, Maltby, Rotherham.
Every little helps...tesco lvied up to its reputation when it came to a charity shop saga.Every little helps...tesco lvied up to its reputation when it came to a charity shop saga.
Every little helps...tesco lvied up to its reputation when it came to a charity shop saga.

I AM a volunteer for a charity which is, sadly, closing down. As I have a car, I have offered to take boxes of surplus equipment and books to a charity shop where I could park right outside. A strong gentleman loaded my car for me. I was able to park right outside the charity shop to which it was agreed I would make the donations.

My worst fears were realised when I saw that the only assistant appeared even older and frailer than me. I am 67 and had surgery for bowel cancer eight years ago. I really shouldn’t hump heavy stuff around!

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As I struggled to carry and deliver the penultimate box in the shop, a younger lady who had appeared, presumably the manager, asked if the remaining box was books. I said it was and she refused to accept them on the grounds of lack of storage and health and safety issues. This is just unbelievable! Instead I took the last box to the adjacent Tesco’s. I loaded it in a trolley, wheeled it to Customer Services where a very nice lady assistant was really grateful for the donation in support of Diabetes UK and arranged for a strapping young lad, a Tesco’s employee, 
to take the box out of the trolley and deal with it.

You can guess where any further donations are going...