A BOLTON family enjoyed a rare shopping trip together yesterday - to open the town's latest £3 million superstore.

The Fulats, from Deane Church Lane, were winners of a competition at the new Boots' store at The Gates Centre on Mealhouse Lane - appropriately run with the Bolton Evening News whose former home it is.

The prize was not only to officially open the new store - which covers 36,000 square feet - but to enjoy a £500 bumper shopping spree there.

The winning nomination from Mrs Abida Padia - Mrs Shahida Fulat's sister - explained that the Fulats were busy foster-carers.

They have looked after dozens of children for the past seven years "giving them love and affection," said the nomination.

As a result, outings of any sort together were rare, and family shopping trips even rarer.

An overwhelmed Mrs Fulat said that she and her husband, Hassen, who lectures on fostering, could not care for the many children they did without the support of their own children.

And, as a "thank you", they arranged for 13-year-old Ebrahim, Shazia, 11, and seven-year-old Sanah to join them.

And the children currently in the Fulats' care were at the top of their shopping list yesterday.

"I was especially looking for a pretty dress for the nursery Christmas party for the little two-year-old girl we're fostering," she said.

"I found a beautiful one, treated the children to whatever they wanted, and even got myself a midi hi-fi system!"

Heather Exley, four, from Bolton, was also a VIP for the day.

She performed the opening ceremony for the new Boots' opticians practice in the store.

The opening of Boots The Chemists and Boots Opticians also coincided with the re-opening of the transformed Gates Centre.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.