Wigan group helping children and families launches desperate appeal for storage venue after being overwhelmed with donations

Daffodils Dreams, which works with vulnerable and disadvantaged families in Poolstock, Goose Green and Worsley Mesnes, says it is full to overflowing with items given to it by generous residents and now needs somewhere to put them.

Other news: Wigan borough MP steps into care home rowDonations are currently occupying every spare inch of the community interest company’s boutique at Grants Bulldog Forge and the unused rooms at the home of founder Maureen Holcroft, family members and keen supporters.

Maureen says Daffodils Dreams is desperately looking for somewhere it can take proper stock of the mass of objects coming in to help families on the breadline so donations can quickly be dispatched to where they are needed.

She said: “We want the boutique to look like a high street retailer and we put a partition for storage in, but after only four weeks there you can barely walk down it. It’s rammed with stuff people have donated since the opening.

“The back lounge at my house is piled three high with bags and boxes.

“My husband has a piano in there and you can just about see the top of it.

“It’s also got all the stuff that used to be piled up in the kitchen until he pointed out we couldn’t even use the table and it was getting beyond a joke.

“One spare bedroom is full of bric-a-brac we’re selling, my son’s attic is full of toys which he is selling to raise money and my mum has two spare bedrooms full of stuff.

“One has school uniforms that need working on and the other is full of children’s wear and Christmas items we want to give out.

“In one week I got given four bags of donations, four lots of things hanging up over my couch in the back lounge, 10 bags which someone’s keeping in their house for me and four in another. That’s one week.

“We need more space. We want somewhere things can be set out in size order and season order so when we get a call off social services saying children need clothes or shoes or whatever I can just pull it out and bring it to the shop for them to have straight away.

“Someone currently wants shoes for a child for school and I know where they are but I can’t get to them.

“At the moment I can barely remember what is in some of the bags,

“The only thing we really need the place to have is lighting,

“I can sort rails and things out myself for the inside.

“Our dream is to have our own giving factory or warehouse where people can come to drop items off and we can sort them out, wash and iron them and do everything else needed there.”

For more information visit www.daffodilsdreams.org