Gogglebox star to open vegan charity shop in Hove

Louis, a vegan who supports cruelty-free research, will do the honours at 1pm on Saturday 18 February.

The Dr Hadwen Trust (DHT) is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity and made history last year by opening their first vegan charity shop in Hertfordshire.

Hove was the perfect choice for the charity’s second shop because of the large number of vegan living in the area.

Dr Brett Cochrane, the science director at DHT, said: “In addition to helping raise awareness and funds to support our work, our shops have environmental benefits through recycling and reselling pre-loved goods.

“They support budget shopping by offering good quality goods at low prices. They also have ethical benefits as no animal products are used or sold in our shops. And, they allow us to offer volunteering opportunities and work experience.”

The charity has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the fitting of the shop: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-make-history-in-hove Supporters are being invited to pledge anything from £1 which will buy 10 coat hangers to £1,000 which rewards the pledger with a VIP invitation to the shop opening and a hug from Jade, the shop manager.

Dr Cochrane said: “We are asking people to make history in Hove by supporting the opening of our second vegan charity shop.

“Crowdfunding will help to off-set the costs of setting up the shop to allow more funds to go towards funding cruelty-free, human relevant research.

“Setting up a shop is expensive, but our first shop has proved that the Hove shop will help raise awareness, and much needed funds to support animal free research.

“We chose Hove because Brighton & Hove is home to a high proportion of vegans, vegetarians and progressive thinkers, and we already enjoy significant support from the area.”