ONE of South Gloucestershire’s biggest charities is due to become a lot more noticeable in Yate.

Next month St Peter’s Hospice is opening a new and extended charity shop in a former children’s clothing store in the town’s shopping centre.

The charity is taking over the Adam’s clothes shop on South Parade and will open up the ground and first floor to customers.

"It will be like a mini-department store," St Peter’s Hospice chief executive Sandie Foxall-Smith told the Gazette. "The former shop has been completely gutted and it is huge.

"We will be selling women’s, men’s and children’s clothing and we hope to raise more money as it costs £6million a year to keep all of our services going."

The charity’s shop on South Parade closed last week and the shop on North Parade will close on Wednesday, November 7. The new shop is due to open on Wednesday, November 16.

The charity has also revealed it is moving a specialist team of 10 nurses into the first floor of the shop to help more patients with terminal illnesses in the community.

"We already have teams based at GP surgeries but this will mean they can have their own offices and shows that we really are committed to South Gloucestershire," said Mrs Foxall-Smith.

The charity, which has an 18-bed hospice in Brentry, Bristol and sends healthcare professionals into people’s homes in the last few weeks of a patient’s life, spends more than £1million a year on caring for patients in South Gloucestershire. In 2010, 32 per cent of the hospice at home work the charity carried out was in the district and 32 per cent of the patients looked after in Brentry were from South Gloucestershire.

To increase its presence even further in the Yate and Chipping Sodbury area, St Peter’s is also looking for premises to host its Fatigue and Breathlessness (FAB) courses.

"We run the courses to help people have a better end of life," added Mrs Foxall-Smith. "Often when people are poorly they lose confidence and we help them to regain it.

"The courses are for six or eight patients and we are looking for somewhere in Yate or Chipping Sodbury where we can hold them so people do not have to travel."