As many of us begin to tackle the post-Christmas waste, decluttering our homes in time for the new year, the BHF is calling on people across Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire to consider gifting unwanted items to its charity shops.

Rather than binning that unopened toy the kids are too old for, or chucking the bracelet that isn’t your style, simply pop it in the post, or take it to a BHF shop, and help the charity fund life saving research.

“We all know what it’s like after Christmas, when homes can feel full to them brim,” said Allison Swaine Hughes, Retail Director at the British Heart Foundation.

“Presents in particular can be very quickly out of favour, with some already resigned to a cupboard, or left abandoned under the tree.

“If you’re having a clear out during the post-Christmas lull, we welcome everything from good quality clothes, shoes, handbags and jewellery to DVDs, CDs, books and children’s toys.

“By donating to one of our 32 shops in Wales, you can help prevent quality items from going to waste and free up space around the house.

“Without your generous donations, we can’t fund life saving breakthroughs for the 7.6 million people in the UK living with heart and circulatory diseases.

As well as dropping off donations at a BHF shop, you can also post up to 10kg of smaller items such as branded clothing, jewellery, records and electronics for free, by downloading a QR code/label from the BHF website and heading to your nearest Collect+ point with your package.”

For those donating gadgets, the BHF has the technology to wipe your donated items clean of data before putting them on sale.

This year, the BHF will save around 71,000 tonnes of goods from going to waste, by selling over half a million pieces of living room furniture, including 250,000 sofas and 14,000 tonnes of preloved clothes.

Through the reuse and recycling of donated items this helps prevent 135,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere.

Adam Fletcher, Head of BHF Cymru said: “For more than 60 years, the public’s generosity has funded BHF research that has turned ideas that once seemed like ’science fiction’ into treatments and cures that save lives every day. But millions of people are still waiting for the next breakthrough.

“Today in Wales 340,000 people are living with the daily burden of heart and circulatory diseases, which cause around 2,800 premature deaths every year.

“We urgently need the public’s support to keep our life saving research going, and to discover the treatments and cures of the future.

“It is only with donations from the public that the BHF can keep its life saving research going, helping us turn science fiction into reality.”

Full web address for information on postal donations https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/post-your-donations