A life-sized nativity scene created by a community group called the Nutty Knitters has won the innovation accolade at the Charity Retail Awards 2014.

The Knitivity project raised more than £40,000 for Bristol-based St Peter’s Hospice, including £32,968 in Christmas card sales featuring an image of the scene in front of the Clifton suspension bridge (pictured).

Some 8,242 packs of cards were sold, more than eight times as many as previous bestsellers.

The awards were held at the Charity Retail Association’s annual conference at Keele University earlier this week.

The most unusual donated item went to Hospice Care Shops for a coffin trolley, which the team now use to move furniture.

Clic Sargent won in the 0-100 shops category for most valuable item sold for Roger Black’s London 2012 Olympic Torch, which went for £2,550 on eBay. In the 100-plus shop category of the same prize, Oxfam GB won for a first UK edition of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, dating from 1923, which sold for £4,500 at auction. 

Other awards included Longest Serving Charity Shop Volunteer, which went to Oxfam charity shop volunteer Betty Matthews, who has worked in the same shop since 1962.

Matthews, who helped launch the shop in Spalding, Lincolnshire, after reading about children in the developing world, most recently campaigned for the store to stay open by rallying support from the local media, other volunteers, donor and customers to improve sales.

Ralph Smith, a 22-year-old with Asperger syndrome, won the Young Volunteer of the year award for his dedication to his role at Home-Start Wirral.

He had never had a job before and joined the charity through the Step In To Work Programme at Wirral Autistic Society. He prefers working with computers so the charity asked him to sort books – he has scanned more than 1,300 books this year and made £250 for the charity by listing valuable books online.

The most valuable book Smith has sold went for £50. The charity said it would never have known its value if he had not scanned it.