Charity shop manager retires after 25 years of service and £750,000 raised

A charity shop manager in Gloucester is waving goodbye to the charity shop she has called her second home for 25 years, after helping it raise more than £750k for pets in need. The animal healthcare charity PDSA said her efforts had been “life-saving”.

Now, after a quarter of a century at the PDSA charity shop on Kings Square, 66-year-old Sue Cresswell, has worked her last shift. Though, she is promising to return as a volunteer for the charity, which provides free consultations and reduced-cost care for pets up and down the country.

Sue started working at the PDSA shop in 1998, and has since helped it raise over £750,000, funds which go towards helping thousands of pets in Gloucestershire. She said: “In my day, social media was not as popular as today, so I found the job advert in the local newspaper, I adore pets and knew it would be a worthy cause.”

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Sue continued: “It was initially a real challenge when I started the job, as the shop was not yet open and I had to build it up from an empty shell. It was very exciting to watch it develop into the successful shop it is today and for such a brilliant cause.

“I will 100 per cent be going back to volunteer at the shop, because I love it that much and I hope whoever reads my journey, is inspired to join in too.”

The charity says that the £750,000 that Sue has helped to raise for PDSA would equate to either: 10 million syringes, 6000 overnight stays for poorly pets, 2500 emergency dental operations, or the running cost of the Bristol Pet Hospital for more than half a year. In 2022, PDSA provided more than 2 million vet treatments to sick pets in the UK.