THE future of a Winchester charity is uncertain as it faces its busiest time of the year.

Winchester Combined Charities’ Christmas card shop opened last week with 52 charities to benefit from its sales.

But the charity is losing its stockroom in Beaconsfield House, Andover Road, after Christmas as the building is set to be developed.

Charity coordinator Pam Chrismas said they had nowhere to store the thousands of cards and seven wooden stands.

She said: “We are worried about our future. We need a stockroom for 10 months of the year to keep our stands and stock and the other two months we use it to sort through all the cards. “We need somewhere like a large garage or barn. Somewhere where it’s dry and there are lights. If anyone can help us please get in touch.”

The charity has been running the Christmas card shop for 30 years and recently moved into the city council’s Cafe 1871 in The Broadway.

Pam added they hoped to sell around 20,000 packs of cards over the next six weeks, raising tens of thousands of pounds with all proceeds split among the charities.

Mayor of Winchester Frank Pearson officially opened the shop last Friday (Oct 26) and said it was a very worthwhile cause.

He said: “It’s a fantastic idea and it fits in with the Christmas idea. Christmas is a time of talking to others and a great way of doing that is through Christmas cards.

“It’s also a really good venue and I’m sure they will get a great deal of footfall.”

Every charity involved will supply volunteers to run the shop, with 12 people working there every day.