A couple who have dedicated the past twenty years to raising funds for Paulton Hospital in their early retirement are set to fully retire at the end of January, having raised over £500,000 for the community facility, alongside a dedicated band of volunteers; the League of Friends. Terry and Caroline Wynne, who both received MBE’s for their work in 2011, will be closing the doors on their High Street shop on January 31st, and are appealing to local people to help them go out on a high.

Everything will need to go at the shop, including fixtures and fittings; so, from January 8th until January 31st 2018, there will be a half price sale – with Paulton Hospital benefitting from the total raised.

Over the years, the hospital have given the League of Friends a wish list of equipment that it needed, and has resulted in high-tech beds, ECG machines, examination couches, a defibrillator, ENT machines, air-mattresses, delivery beds, furniture for the conservatory, scanners, DVD players and much more being purchased.

The main aim has always been to support Paulton Hospital in any way possible, defending it from threats of closure and ensuring that local people do not need to travel to Bath or Bristol to receive treatment.

Mr and Mrs Wynne took early retirement from Cadbury’s, Keynsham, in 1998, but had already been helping with the hospital’s fundraising tombola. A shop became available on Paulton High Street, and the couple have not looked back since. Within ten years, Paulton Hospital’s charity shop had raised £250,000 for the community hospital originally founded for miners, celebrating the half a million pound milestone last year.

In 2013, the League of Friends Charity Shop moved to larger premises further up the road, which enabled them to provide a meeting place for tea and coffee and they began selling local eggs, jam and marmalade. The eggs were so popular that the sales of which covered the shop’s rent alone!

On Saturday last week, the couple held a retirement party, surrounded by fellow volunteers and friends at The Stag Inn, Hinton Charterhouse, generously treating around forty guests to a two-course lunch.

The League of Friends presented the couple with a much-deserved two night break away in the New Forest and fondly thanked Terry and Caroline for their dedication over so many years. The couple say they will continue to run the hospital’s fundraising tombola, which has brought in thousands of pounds over the years.