Barely a shop remains along Scholes precinct in Wigan. Bleak under a blue sky, every front is boarded up bar the bookies. Then you round the corner, and two yellow shopfronts stick out like good teeth in a broken mouth.
Sunshine Mums Babies and Tots, and Sunshine Charity Shop are doing a roaring trade, selling baby clothes, books and jigsaws.
Along with 50 to 60 hot meals a day the Sunshine House community centre has been turning out since the start of the pandemic, they are a lifeline not just for families, but for hope itself.
