Almost £45,000 has been divided between 19 Manx charities from a charity store in the west of the island.

Peel Charity Shop, located on Shore Road, collected the impressive amount through its sale of second-hand clothes and other items, as well as two donation mornings that were open to the public.

Charities which received a total of £2,000 each were: Sailing for the Disabled, Manx Junior Viking Wheelers, St John’s Church Hall Fund, Motiv8 Addiction Service, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Manx Decaf, Bridge the Gap, Friends of the Hyperbaric Chamber, Isle of Man Breast Care, Manx Blind Welfare, Manx Workshop for the Disabled, the island branch of Multiple Sclerosis, Manx Eating Disorders Support Group, and Isle of Man Search and Rescue Dogs.

A number of other charities received cheques of differing amounts: British Red Cross, Manx Scouts, Flower Festival, Peel Carnival, Friends of Chernobyl’s Children.

Margaret Bowden, the secretary of the committee at Peel Charity Shop, said: ’The British Red Cross received extra donations, as they needed to get 12 more wheelchairs of varying sorts.

’The Scouts, who we often support, wanted help for new training to include handicapped children.

’We gave the Flower Festival £1,000, which they then split between four local churches and we also gave £1,000 to the Friends of Chernobyl’s Children.

’Overall, we must have given nearly £45,000.’

Last year, the shop managed to hit its £1 million mark in funds donated to charities.

A coffee morning was held in celebration of the milestone with Chief Minister Howard Quayle and MHKs Ray Harmer and Geoffrey Boot in attendance.

Margaret explained that all 40 volunteers who work for the shop are kept busy due to the amount of customers coming in.

’You should see our shop!’ she said. ’We have three people on a session in the shop because it’s busy. We’ve had to have three people in or we cannot cope.’