The Charity Retail Association has launched an appeal to find the UK’s longest-serving charity shop volunteer.

Charity retailers have been urged to nominate their volunteers and tell the Charity Retail Association (CRA) about their achievements and what has kept them coming back to work at the shop over the years.

The winner will be announced and honoured at a ceremony during National Volunteers’ week, 1-7 June. 

A spokesman for the CRA said nominees would be judged by a panel of charity retail experts looking at the time they have served and the level of impact they have had on the charity, community and other volunteers.

Charity shop volunteers raise £290m a year for charities, the CRA said.

Early candidates for the award include Sandra Turner, 75, who has volunteered at the Oxfam Northern Ireland shop in Portadown for 45 years.

She has spent 2,348 weeks volunteering and helped set up the first Oxfam shop in Northern Ireland, a former pub where bargains were found by rummaging through brown boxes.

Turner survived an IRA bomb attack in the street near the shop, evacuating other volunteers and running down the street to escape.

Twin sisters, Iris Smith and Edna Haas, from Sittingbourne in Kent, have volunteered for the British Heart Foundation for 28 years, helping to raise £1.5m in profits for the charity.

Ramesh Khanna, 62, began volunteering in 1995 to help him recover from depression and build a local support network.

The CRA said his story demonstrates that charity shops not only raise money but offer positive health benefits to those who volunteer.

“Volunteering has really kept me going, I can’t put into words the positive feeling, support and help I get as a volunteer here and it’s wonderful to keep doing it after so long,” he said.

If you have a long-serving volunteer to nominate, email Liam Challenger at [email protected].