SHOPPERS in Waitrose Alton got a surprise on Saturday – when actors Sarah Parish and Jim Murray wandered into the store.

The couple popped in to the Station Road store to say ‘thank you’ for supporting their charity. They set up the Murray Parish Trust to raise money for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Southampton Hospital after their eight-month-old daughter, Ella-Jayne, died of congenital heart failure in 2009. They now have another daughter.

The Trust has been challenged to raise £1m over the next two to three years for the Friends of PICU, so Southampton General can extend its paediatric facilities and in effect create a new children’s hospital with everything under one roof – its own A&E entrance, more bed spaces for the intensive care unit, two new isolation rooms, a larger cardiac unit, and more on-site accommodation for parents.

Waitrose has chosen the Trust as one of the Alton store’s three monthly good causes which benefit from customers putting green tokens into a charity box. The other charities this month are Orchard House, Alton, and Alton Social Netball Club.

A Waitrose spokesman said the store was pleased Miss Parish and her husband Jim made a personal visit as the customers enjoyed meeting them.

“They talked with shoppers about the marvellous work the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit does to save the lives of babies and we did notice that there were a lot more green discs in the charity’s section after their visit.”

At the end of the month the tokens are counted and Waitrose gives the equivalent value in money – sometimes as much as a £1,000 – which will be divided between the three charities.