The Chancellor was in town this afternoon to visit the Wilmslow Christmas Market, Santa's Grotto and the Combined Charities Christmas Shop at Wilmslow library.
George Osborne, who has visited the charity card shop for ten years running, chatted with Wilmslow resident Sheila Hallas MBE, who started the charity shop 40 years ago, and volunteer Jill Dodson.
Sheila said "We very much appreciated George Osborne finding the time to visit us as he has such a busy schedule and I was very impressed to hear he personally signs and writes the names in 2,500 Christmas cards."
From humble beginnings in 1971, the Combined Charities Christmas Shop has expanded year on year and today 55 charities are represented in the shop. They have also stuck to their fundamental principle where everybody working for the organisation does so on a voluntary basis and 100% from the card sales goes to the charities.
Sheila added "In difficult trading circumstances I think we have done very well this year. We're really close to our £4million and its our 40th year so if we could just there through the shops and website combined that would be wonderful.
"We have been able to take debit cards in Wilmslow and Macclesfield this year which has worked well for us but it costs us £833 for two machines which we need to make up in six weeks with the sale of gifts. It was a needs must and we wouldn't have done so well without it but next year we could do with a Father Christmas who could sponsor a machine."
In addition to selling charity Christmas cards the shop has a selection of reasonably priced gifts for men, ladies and children - the profits from which go towards covering overheads, enabling every penny from the sale of the cards to go to the charities.
The Combined Charities Christmas Shop will be open at Wilmslow Library until Saturday 10th December or you can purchase charity christmas cards online from their web site at www.christmas-cards.org.uk.
