Charities and Covid: Call to follow Sheen's donations lead after losses

Charities are urging people to follow Michael Sheen's lead and donate unwanted items following huge losses during the Covid lockdown.

British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru said it lost about £50m in the first year of Covid due to shop closures.

Other charities echoed this loss and urged people to make donations, like the suits from Michael Sheen's parents.

Adam Fletcher, head of BHF Cymru, said Covid had been "devastating" for charities who rely on retail income.

The BHF has 720 shops across the UK - 32 in Wales.

All of them had to close when lockdowns hit during the pandemic.

Back in December, the parents of Twilight and Underworld actor Michael Sheen answered the plea and donated some of his old suits to the BHF store in Port Talbot.

His mother, Irene, said her son "asked us to find a good cause to donate them to".

They have since sold for hundreds of pounds a piece on eBay.

Mr Fletcher said: "We had a fantastic donation before Christmas from Michael Sheen's family who are strong supporters of the BHF, because as a family they have benefitted from the research."

He said he hoped people follow suit after a "Christmas declutter".

He said: "The coronavirus crisis has had a devastating impact on the BHF's income, leading to research funding being cut in half and the delay of important scientific breakthroughs.

"The impact is on the amount of new research we can fund and it is important we can address a lot of the questions through research and we can only do that through raising money and through our fundraising opportunities.

"Every item sold will be turned into funds for research that could help transform the lives of those 340,000 people in Wales living with heart and circulatory diseases."

The BHF is not the only charity that has taken a hit by Covid shutting shops.

Barnardo's said they had seen their retail income fall by £47.9m to £30m in 2020-21 because of the impact of lockdown closures.

Loss-making stores were closed, but Barnardo's was able to triple online sales to £330,000 and increase eBay sales from £1m to £1.4m thanks to continued donations.

Ty Hafan said they used to get a third of their funding from their charity shops and added this had now "reduced significantly".

For Cancer Research Wales there has been a 50% drop in income across the board but, in particular, retail income saw a loss of 83% last year - which translates into about £400,000.

Rhodri Davies, head of income generation at Cancer Research Wales, said: "As a charity that looks to generate about £3m a year, that is a big loss for us and it has had a wider impact on resources, staff and the way we operate as a charity."

He said as a result stores have had to undergo a "restructure" to keep them afloat.

"We think about how we present, stock and staff our shops because we have seen a number of people leave, but we have got to make sure that we keep them open to make sure they are profitable for the charity to help fund cancer research.

"We know the pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy and we want to keep customers coming through our doors shopping, but also we desperately need someone to bring their donated goods to us.

"Every donation is valued and appreciated because it means every donation we receive we can raise income for the charity to benefit people with cancer in Wales."