Shops run by the Oxford-based charity Oxfam made £21m for the poor and needy overseas in 2008.

The year saw the 60th anniversary of the shop in Broad Street, the country’s first Oxfam store, andthe 21st birthday of the charity’s bookshop in St Giles.

Volunteers at the St Giles store have helped raise £4m in the past two decades.

Last year, book shop volunteer Andrew Chapman made £15,000 for the charity when he realised the potential value of an early Graham Greene novel.

Oxfam’s deputy trading director, Barney Tallack, said: “For 60 years, Oxfam has been making the most of the great donations we are given. It is a real privilege to get these extraordinary things from the British public, and to have the support of 22,000 amazing volunteers who spot the valuable items with hawk-like skill.

“We always need more donations, though, so please keep them coming – they help save lives.”

Donations ranged from the highly valuable to the simply unusual, and Oxfam sold about 28 million donated items, including approximately 12 million books and six million items of clothing.

The St Giles bookshop is the second most profitable Oxfam shop in the country, behind only Glasgow.

The charity’s £21m profit, up by £1m from last year’s total, has been used to tackle world poverty.

Oxfam spokesman Stuart Fowkes said money made by the shops was spent on aid projects throughout the world.

He added: “Money can be directed to wherever it’s most needed – so at the moment Gaza is one of the places receiving contributions.

“We work in 70 countries and run programmes providing anything from humanitarian relief, clean water and shelter, to sexual health education programmes in Africa.”

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