A Swindon charity shop which has offered support for victims of domestic violence for the past four years has closed.

Swindon Sisters Alliance was founded by Emma King after her sister Julie Butcher was murdered by her estranged husband in 2005.

She opened charity shops to fund her work supporting people in Swindon and surrounding areas who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, including the town centre store at The Parade.

But on Saturday, September 21, the store closed after four years in the town centre to make way for the neighbouring Greggs expansion, leaving two smaller shops in Gorse Hill and Moredon.

Earlier this week, there were ‘closing down’ and sale signs in the window counting day until the store was set to close for good.

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A sign which read ‘final day, thank you for all of your support’ was placed in the shop window on Saturday, while customers were popping in to grab last minute bargains.

Emma said: “Julie's death put us on a path that we didn’t choose. I would have loved to have not set this up because I’d rather my sister be here, but in the aftermath of everything we’ve been through as a family, it was time to voice that journey and give something positive back to the Swindon community.

Emma King, CEO of Swindon Sisters AllianceEmma King, CEO of Swindon Sisters Alliance (Image: Newsquest) “We were gifted the shop for free in 2020 and we’re so thankful to the management team and landlord, we would have never gotten this far otherwise and we’ve been gifted the most amazing journey and support. We’ve done extremely well.

“I’m so proud of our people, clients and the families we support, everyday we help someone, but some people can’t reach out for many reasons.

“This is exactly what we would have needed, we were young, didn’t have much support and didn’t know where to go. Just to have that shop setting opens the doorway to support and it works.

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"It's bittersweet. We would love to come back to the town centre but we don’t want to lease something if it’s not financially viable.

“We do a lot of support behind the scenes, we’re not just a donation shop. We’re not sure what we can do going forward, but we’re asking the public to come to our community shops because that’s the only way we’re going to survive.

“There’s so much positivity. Our local community gives so much lovely stuff to us to generate income and we’ve got an amazing team behind us. We’re going to keep ploughing, we’re not going anywhere.”