A SUPER-SIZE charity store that will raise funds to help the families who have lost loved ones while serving in the Armed Forces is set to open its doors to the public this week.

Forces Support has taken over a former furniture store in Yarm Road Retail Park, in Darlington, after being offered the unit rent free for three years by the landlord in support of its activities.

The national charity works with the families of soldiers killed on active duty, particularly their children, to create play rooms or transform gardens to bring a little happiness to their lives after their loss.

Among the charity’s recent projects was to create a Thomas the Tank-themed playroom and a new garden for Jack Rigby, the now four-year-old son of Drummer Lee Rigby, who was murdered by extremists in London.

The new store in Darlington is due to open its doors on Monday and will offer second hand goods, most of which have been donated by local people.

Since making an appeal for stock on its Facebook page last week the store has already received a large number of goods for sale.

The charity receives no state funding and relies entirely on its network of charity shops across the UK - the Darlington store will be the 10th Forces Support shop with several more expected to open later this year.

Bill McCance, chief executive officer of Forces Support, said the charity is well supported by the British public and has a strong following on Facebook.

Mr McCance said without the support of the corporate landlord, which has offered Forces Support empty retail units elsewhere in the country, the charity would have no chance of being able to afford to host shops on such a large scale.

“These are high value units, there is no way in the world we could run one and afford to trade from there," he said.

“We’ve being fitting out the unit for a couple of days and starting to get stock in place.

“We’ve got 63,000 followers on Facebook and since we announced the Darlington store we’ve already had local people dropping stuff off.

“We will be selling anything and everything – it’s a huge unit so it will take some filling.

“We believe in prices as low as possible to help the local community and we’ll have a rail of £1 clothes which is usually popular.”

The Forces Support store will be open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sundays.