Honiton’s Repair Cafe held a successful second session - and received a £250 donation from a very impressed customer.

Sean Kelly of Tip Top Trees presented the cheque on behalf of his mother, who had brought a treasured family heirloom to the first Repair Cafe – a jewellery box made by her grandfather, which had a broken hinge.

Repairer Jeff Adams took the box away for detailed examination, and reported back that the hinge was too delicate for him to attempt a repair without a risk of damage. The owner was grateful for his expert feedback, and made the donation to support the Repair Café as a ‘truly wonderful resource’.

The cheque was presented at the Repair Café's second session on Saturday, July 16 by Sean, whose aunt Jean was the original recipient of the box.

Sean’s mother Mrs England said: "My grandfather lost his right arm in the First World War and part of his healing and training therapy was in woodwork, painting and embroidery to enable him to learn to use his left hand to better effect. He made the box as a 21st birthday gift to my sister who sadly died last year. I intend the box to remain in the family and be passed down through the generations; my granddaughters have already expressed an interest in receiving it when the time comes.”

“As we are a company of tree surgeons, we are about sustainability ourselves so certainly understand and support the concept when I heard about it. I personally think the Repair Cafe was a brilliant idea and am delighted to see it come to fruition. We do try to support our local community where possible. We recently supplied the CUB (where the Repair Cafes are held) with woodchip."

Miriam Thomas, co-founder of the Repair Café, said the second session had been a great success.

She said: “We not only had a sharp increase in visitors wanting things repaired, we kept up our above average success rate with only a couple of people going away disappointed. We had some very encouraging comments; from 'brilliant' to 'I'm coming back'.

The Repair Café still needs more volunteer ‘fixers’; for more information visit the Honiton CAG website.