Meet Kathy, our Retail Manager this Hospice Care Week

Meet Kathy Foley, the driving force behind our Hospice Shops.

During #HospiceCareWeek 2024 we are celebrating the vital role of our retail teams in ensuring the shops run smoothly and bring in essential funds to support our hospice services.

Here’s Kathy’s story:

What’s your role and how long have you been at Hospice?
My role at Hospice Isle of Man is as Retail Manager. I oversee all 9 of our Shops across the Island, manage the daily operations of them all, look after our paid staff, our volunteers and generally make sure everything is going well day to day! I have been here for around 9 years now.

What does a typical day look like for you?
Each day I meet with our teams first thing – I meet with our operations team and then our shop supervisors. I visit the shops and plan new ideas with the shop supervisors each week. We also have lots of events taking place in shops over the year which all need planning, so I always get involved with those and help where I can!

What’s your favourite thing about working for Hospice?
There are so many things I love about working for Hospice! I really enjoy that every day is never the same. I’ve not had two days even slightly similar in my time at Hospice which makes sure it’s never boring and I’m always looking forward to seeing what’s in store. I love helping people, whether that’s my team, our volunteers or customers, and meeting the new people that pay a visit to any one of our Shops.

How have you seen the shops evolve over the time you have worked here?
The shops have evolved over the years hugely. For a start, we now have nine shops across the Island! Starting from just one shop, we have obviously come a very long way. With our most recent shop opening just last year on Duke Street. Additionally, a big change is that we now sell new goods, as well as the donated stock. E.g. our fabulous Christmas decorations which we have grown from around £1000 turnover in the first year to over £25,000 this last year!

How do you feel the shops contribute to the local community?
The Hospice Shops, as well as being a place to get pre-loved items, can provide a place for people to meet and spend time together. They give an opportunity to also make new friends. Our volunteers are always looking to chat and meet the people who support the charity, so this is a great way to do it. In addition to these, of course, our nine Shops are here to ultimately raise money for Hospice and that’s what’s really important. Without Hospice, the community would be missing a huge piece of itself, so we help to make sure Hospice Care can still be provided to our Island at no cost.

Share a highlight or a favourite memory from your time at Hospice!
It has to be when we ran the first Wild in Art trail; Wallabies Gone Wild in 2019! I’d never done anything like that before, and it was a huge success – it took the Island by storm.

Thank you Kathy for your dedication and hard work!