Ahead of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations Scottish Widows is promising ‘a day with the Royals’ and surprises galore in store when, for one day only, they will be running the Crossroads Caring for Carers charity shop on Prospect Terrace, Douglas.

Volunteers from the company will be manning the shop all day on Friday May 25th and, in support of the Lord of Man’s 60 years’ of loyal service to the Crown, have arranged for ‘Her Majesty’ and ‘Prince Philip’ to serve behind the counter. And, in keeping with the event’s VIP status, the Mayor and Mayoress of Douglas, Councillor David Ashford JP (a Scottish Widows colleague) and his mother, Mrs Sylvia Ashford, will be in attendance from 2 to 3pm.

Meanwhile, the volunteer team is asking for donations of quality clothing, bric-a-brac and other (non-perishable, non-electrical) items to be brought to the company’s Victoria Road, Douglas headquarters at Clerical Medical House. These will go on sale in the shop, together with a growing collection of stock being donated by Scottish Widows colleagues.

Organiser Tracey McDonald explained: ‘We’re working hard to ensure there’ll be lots of new stock on the day so anyone who brings items to our headquarters will receive free entry to the raffle in appreciation. On the day, as well as new stock and a raffle, there’ll be home made cakes, complementary refreshments and a lucky dip. The plan is that we and the shop window will be dressed up for the day, so we’re asking people to enter into the spirit, enter “our” shop and support this very worthy cause.’

Image Caption: Are you being served? Scottish Widows’ senior manager Juan Clarke with colleagues Lynne Sullivan, Christine Hay, ‘HRH Prince Philip’ aka Paul Young and ‘Her Majesty, the Queen, Lord of Man’ aka Tracey McDonald in the Crossroads Caring for Carers shop on Prospect Terrace