A Swaffham charity that helps terminally-ill patients receive care at home has voiced concerns its fundraising could suffer when another hospice charity opens a shop in the town.

The Norfolk Hospice Tapping House has confirmed it plans to open a new shop in Swaffham and yesterday visited a possible location, although it could not confirm where.

However, Swaffham and Litcham Home Hospice Support said it thought it had a gentleman's agreement that the larger charity would not fundraise too actively in the town.

The charity's co-ordinator Debbie Harfield said Tapping House did a 'brilliant job', but added: 'We are doing much more hands-on care in the Swaffham area and we don't want to get lost because we are a much smaller organisation. We are worried people might not know we exist.'

Richard Shaw, chief executive of the Norfolk Hospice Tapping House said it was 'a certainty' the charity would open a shop in Swaffham.

He said: 'We are just looking at the moment and we have got a lot of patients and families we support in the Swaffham area, increasing numbers of whom want to support us in fundraising so that's absolutely the plan.

'It's inevitable that we would open a shop and we have made it the last one to give them a clear run for a couple of years, but we need the money.'