At Prospect Hospice, we provide outstanding, personalised and compassionate care for everyone in Swindon, Marlborough and the surrounding areas affected by a life-limiting illness, completely free of charge. For more than 40 years, we’ve been a dedicated, non-hospital, end-of-life care service for patients and their loved ones - around the clock, every day of the year. Our mission is to ensure that anyone can access the best possible expert care whenever and wherever they need it – whether at the hospice or in their own home. As a charity, we only exist because of the generosity and support of our amazing local community.
Find out about the range of end-of-life care services that we offer to patients and their families. These delivered free of charge and are designed to provide compassionate, personalised support during every stage of a life-limiting illness in every kind of care setting, to anyone who needs it.
We couldn’t do what we do without considerable support from our local community. Find out all the different ways in which you can support Prospect Hospice, including fundraising, volunteering and purchasing from our shops. All contributions are greatly appreciated and enables us to deliver care that is free of charge to our patients and their families.
Our café sits at the heart of our hospice in Wroughton and serves a range of delicious home cooked meals to suit all tastes. Whether you're looking to catch up with friends over lunch or relax with coffee and cake, our Heart of the Hospice café has you covered.
Whether shopping with us in person or online, or donating your pre-loved goods, we thank you for supporting us through our shops where you help to raise around £2million a year for Prospect Hospice.
We pride ourselves on being a great place to work and we're always looking for outstanding people to join our team at the hospice across all areas of the charity.
Prospect Hospice is the leading provider of education and training for end-of-life care in Swindon and north Wiltshire. Working closely with you, our colleagues within partner organisations, we want to ensure that the very best care is available to everyone facing the end of life. This is why we provide education and development opportunities, all of which aim to encourage learning and build confidence in end of life care and support.
Hi, I’m Darren, one of Prospect Hospice’s retail van drivers. I’ve been working at the hospice for about thirteen years – and every day is different!
8am
I arrive at the Distribution Centre and load up the van with items to take to our shops in Highworth, Cricklade, and Clive Parade. Throughout the day, I’ll also go to our shops in Penhill, Abbey Meads, Cavendish Square, and Regent Street. These are the shops I cover, while our other driver Kevin goes to Wroughton, Old Town, Marlborough, Pewsey, Taw Hill, Royal Wootton Bassett, and West Swindon. We both have volunteers that come with us on different days.
8.40am
We (myself and a volunteer) arrive at our Highworth shop and drop off the boxes of items they have requested. The shop manager has also collected some items for us to take over to our Clive Parade shop, as they haven’t sold so far in Highworth – including a brand new doll’s house.
9.10am
We arrive at our Cricklade shop, and unload the boxes from the Distribution Centre. They also have some items for us to take to Clive Parade. Rachel, the manager at Cricklade, offers us a cup of tea so we have a chat with her and one of their volunteers.
9.45am
After leaving Cricklade at 9.30am, we arrive at Clive Parade, where we unload all of the items from the Distribution Centre, as well as those collected by our Highworth and Cricklade shops to see if they’ll have more success selling here. We also load up the van with items to take back to the Distribution Centre – mostly things that haven’t sold, which our sorters will go through.
10am
Leave Clive Parade to head back to the Distribution Centre in Wroughton.
10.15am
We arrive back at the Distribution Centre and the team have put the kettle on – it would be rude not to join them for a cup of coffee!
10.30am
It takes some time to unload the van with everything from Highworth, Cricklade, and Clive Parade – there’s a mix of unsold goods and rubbish for us to get rid of like cardboard boxes. While we’re doing this, we plan which shop to go to next and what we’ll be taking.
11am
We load the van back up items to take to our Abbey Mead and Penhill shops. Penhill have asked for more puzzles, and both shops need women’s winter clothing as the summer comes to an end.
11.30am
We arrive at our Abbey Meads shop and drop off some bags of clothing. They also have some items for us to take back to the Distribution Centre to be re-sorted.
11.45am
After a short drive from Abbey Meads, we get to our Penhill shop. We deliver the puzzles and clothing, and take away some unsold items.
12.10pm
When we get back to the Distribution Centre, we unload everything from Penhill and Abbey Meads.
12.30pm
Lunch time! We have a few fold-up picnic chairs for sunny days like today, so me and the volunteer I’m with today take them and sit outside to have lunch in the sun.
1pm
We load up the van with items for our newest shop, Cavendish Square. Things have been flying off the shelves there, so they need some more stock of clothes, books, and games.
1.30pm
We get to Cavendish Square and unload all of the new stock. It’s also a nice chance to have a chat with Melissa, the shop manager, about how the shop has been doing since it opened a month ago. They also have some unsold items for us to take back to be re-sorted and re-distributed.
1.45pm
We leave Cavendish Square, and head back to the Distribution Centre.
2pm
When we arrive back at the Distribution Centre, we unload the items from Cavendish Square, and then load it back up with new items to go to our shop on Regent Street in Swindon town centre.
2.30pm
We arrive at our Regent Street shop and drop off the new items. There are also some rag bags for us to collect – donations of items of clothing that are damaged or unsellable.
2.45pm
We get back to the Distribution Centre and unload the bags from Regent Street.
3pm
The last hour of the day is spent doing some final unloading and sorting. Kevin arrives back at the Distribution Centre so I help him to unload his last few items. The sorters have also asked us to help with getting some things ready for a pop-up shop at the Arkell’s Brewery 180th Birthday celebrations this weekend.
3.45pm
Finally, I have a chat with Ali, our retail administration coordinator, and Barbara, our sorting supervisor, about what needs delivering tomorrow. We’ve started doing deliveries to shops every day, Monday to Friday, so we need to be prepared, knowing what to take to each shop on each day, so that they get the right stock.
4pm
I leave the Distribution Centre and head home.