THE chief executive of a national charity made the trip from London last week to personally thank a couple who recently closed their Aberystwyth charity shop after raising almost £1m over more than 31 years.

Ann and Rheon Hughes, whose four children were diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, one of whom, Lyn, died at the age of 17, shut the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign shop on Bath Street on Friday, 6 October, as reported in the Cambrian News.

The chief executive of Muscular Dystrophy UK, Robert Meadowcroft, travelled from the charity’s headquarters in London to thank Mr and Mrs Hughes and their team of volunteers for their decades of service, which saw them raise more than £900,000.

Mr Meadowcroft told the Cambrian News: “When the Aberystwyth shop opened its doors 31 years ago, our understanding of muscle-wasting conditions and the search for potential treatments was in a very different place. It is thanks to people like Ann and Rheon Hughes, Caroline Jones and all of the other volunteers who have helped in the shop over the years that treatments that could change and extend the lives of people with these conditions are making their way through clinical trials today. While the shop is closing, the work of the fantastic local Muscular Dystrophy UK fundraising branch continues. We thank our volunteers for the incredible £900,000 raised to help those affected by muscle-wasting conditions over the last 40 years, and look forward to what comes next, starting with a fund-raising stall at a local Christmas fayre on 11 November.”

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