Meet Rachel, our Events Management Intern

In 2025, we partnered with Pitman Training to offer hands‑on, practical internships across multiple departments at St Oswald’s Hospice.

Rachel McWhinnie is our Events Management Intern, supporting our charity retail team to deliver pop‑up sales, markets and workshops at our buzzing event venue, the space.

Recently, she took the lead on the inception, planning and delivery of our first ever literature‑themed pop‑up, The Big Book Sale. The event rehomed a whopping 527 paperbacks and raised almost £1,000 for the hospice.

Read on to hear how Rachel’s internship is going and why The Big Book Sale proved to be such a big success.

Why did you join the Pitman internship programme?

I graduated university last year and had no idea what to do next. I’d been involved in organising society events at Uni, and thought maybe event management would be something I’d like to go into.

The Pitman internship gave me the opportunity to develop those skills, to work towards a vocational qualification that’ll be hugely helpful towards getting a job in the field, and has given me the perfect space to stretch my legs and see if I’m comfortable and good at event management.

Plus, it’s allowed me to help a charity I really care about along the way.

What tasks or projects do you support with day-to-day?

I help set up sales at the space, the Hospice’s retail events venue. We have a new sale almost every week, ranging from kilo and £2 sales to high-end vintage, with special events like music (vinyl, tapes etc), Christmas, and my recent Big Book sale.

I go in during the week to help with prep – sorting donated items to work out what sales they should go in, hanging clothes, putting out stock and setting up displays – and then on Fridays and Saturdays I pop in to help run the sales – mostly manning the till and keeping the shop tidy. And chatting with regular customers!

What part of the role have you enjoyed the most?

Working with the events team at the space. They’re a lovely encouraging bunch of people and they work really hard every week to bring together a totally new event each week.

How did the idea for The Big Book sale come about?

We wanted to try something new that the space hadn’t done before. Most of the events are clothes-based, which are always a huge hit but we wanted to try something different.

I did an English degree and I really love reading, so books felt like a natural option for me to organise my first event. I’m also very passionate about physical media – I like owning something tangible so I can’t lose it if it gets taken off a streaming service or something – so I decided to expand the event to include DVDs and CDs and games.

What was involved in the preparation of the event?

Caryan, the events manager, really encouraged me to have a hand in every part of the process.

After working on the concept for the event, we decided on a date, landing it right next to World Book Day.

We worked out stock and organising deliveries of donated books, and sorted out the printing of physical marketing (flyers, posters etc). I had the idea of printing branded bookmarks with QR codes promoting upcoming events at the space, so anyone who bought a book at the sale would have a reminder of where they got it and a link to more, so hopefully when they were reading the book (or re-using the bookmark) they’d think of us and consider coming back in.

I had my first experience with social media promotion, making engaging reels and taking photos for the space’s Instagram feed.

The best part was that on the day, I’d donated some of my own childrens books, and it was really nice seeing them go off to new homes.

Why are you passionate about second-hand shopping?

I’m very passionate about the sustainability of second-hand shopping, maybe even more so now I’ve seen how many clothes come through the space each week. I swear we could clothe all of Newcastle for the rest of our lives and still have plenty to spare.

I also really like the unpredictability of it. I never go in thinking ‘I really need a floaty green crocheted cardigan or a giant pleated skirt’ but I always leave with something like that.

And that’s just mentioning clothes – I could go on for hours about the unique décor, bric-a-brac, DVDs, CDs and books I’ve brought home.

My mum’s sick of me calling asking for a lift home because I’ve bought too much and can’t carry it all. One week I came home with two wetsuits and a pair of flippers. You just never know what you’re going to get and that’s so much more fun!

Interested in volunteering at the space? Find out more here

To discover what events Rachel and the team have coming up at the space, browse our event line-up.