A shop selling Christmas cards for 22 charities has enjoyed another record-breaking year after taking over £26,500.

National charities such as Barnados and Macmillan Cancer Research, as well as the locally-based ones such as St Michael's Hospice, sold nearly 9,000 packs of cards during the eight weeks the shop was open at Malvern Library.

This was up £500 on 2000.

John Rowe, manager of Malvern Card Shop, attributed the success to the long-standing relationship between the shop and library.

He said: "The card shop is celebrating its 21st year in Malvern. We've been in the library for about 10 years. Each year the amount taken has increased. Everybody's so used to it being there and the library is such a busy place."

Members of the Midlands Charities Association organise the event and the association takes a cut of the revenue from the charities, with members contributing one per cent of their takings. Guest charities contribute 16 per cent.

Mr Rowe, who is also chairman of the association, praised the generosity of local people and the volunteers who run the shop.

He said: "We've had terrific support from Malvern and the surrounding areas. People come from as far away as Worcester, Upton-upon-Severn and Bosbury.

"We also have a very good volunteer force. We have around 50 and some of them have been there since the start of the shop 21 years ago."

With the shop proving more popular than ever, the queue of guest charities wanting to sell cards there from this October is getting longer.

"There's a list of charities who have applied to us," said Mr Rowe. "We try to fit as many in as possible but we do have restriction in terms of space. Twenty-two is our limit."