We wanted to give the idea of a sponsored activity a new twist.

We are recruiting volunteers for our charity shops and asking them to motivate themselves to keep going by asking friends and family members to sponsor them to put in a certain number of days worked.

We hope this will raise additional funds to help local animals but more importantly that the new volunteers will  become long-term helpers at the shops.

I mainly volunteer at the RSPCA Bookshop in Cambridge which is at 188 Mill Road and specialises in selling second-hand books, CDs and DVDs.

RSPCA Cambridge has two other general charity shops: at 10A Market Street in Newmarket and at 61 Burleigh Street in Cambridge and both of them need more helpers.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.