St Helens’ hospital’s palliative care unit will be outfitted with new furnishings thanks to a generous donation from the hospital auxiliary.

Since May last year, the hospital has run the tip shop at St Helens, with items donated for resale.

All proceeds raised support the hospital in various ways.

To date, the auxiliary has raised $65,000 through the tip shop but has raised a total of $85,000 this year.

Auxiliary president Margaret Osborne said the tip shop was run by volunteers and members of the auxiliary, and the proceeds support both St Helens and St Marys hospitals.

“We made a commitment when we took over the tip shop that we’d continue to give St Mary’s [hospital] the same amount it was always getting,” she said.

The tip shop also had a bumper weekend, opening extra hours for the recent national garage sale trail.

Mrs Osborne said the auxiliary and the tip shop had been supported by the local community.

“We had the idea from one of our other members, who said we should set it up to run the tip shop and support the auxiliary and the hospital,” she said.

“We also get donations to the auxiliary from members of the public,” she said.

The auxiliary has a target of $100,000 to reach by the end of the year, to support the fit out of the palliative care unit.

Mrs Osborne said the St Helens hospital auxiliary was founded years ago but had to fold due to lack of members and support from the original members.

However, about 10-12 years ago, she approached then-Health Minister David Llewellyn about the state of the hospital.

“He told me that the reason it was like that was that there was no auxiliary,” she said.

“So I, and a group of other people started one and now the hospital is looking amazing again.”

Mrs Osborne said having two hospitals in the region was vital to East Coast communities and she wanted to ensure its patients had access to the best equipment.