This is Penny and she rescues dolls from the Immingham store and gives them a new lease of life!

It all started back in 2018 when she bought a doll from one of the shops. She explained: “I got charged the wrong price for it and so I knitted her a dress and took it back to the Immingham shop. I then bought another doll from a car boot sale, did the same thing and took it to the shop for them to sell. The manager at the time said: “If I give you some dolls, would you be able to do something with them?” and it just snowballed. It’s become a full-time job!”

Sophie, the current manager, said: “When I moved to this shop in 2023, I would always see her popping in. Once I caught wind that this is what she does, I began keeping an eye out for toys that could use a bit of TLC as well as extra wool or other materials that she could make use of that would otherwise go to waste.”

Penny now comes once a month to drop off any dolls that she’s fixed and pick up new ones. When asked what made her decide to do this, she replied: “It gives me a sense of fulfilment because you’re doing something to help people. I clean them, put new limbs on them, make them unique clothing, no doll is the same. For a few pounds, children have something at Christmas or on their birthday rather than nothing, that’s why I do it.”

Sophie added: “They sell really well at Christmas time. Penny’s given up so much time to fix these dolls. She is so talented and you can tell how much love and joy she gets out of doing it.

“It puts such a smile on her face when she comes in and shows us everything that she's done. She's only recently started sewing the clothes. She normally crochets and knits them, but she wanted to challenge herself. I think it's brilliant! It’s never going to be enough but, on behalf of all of us, I just want to say a big, big thank you.”

To anyone also wanting to help the hospice in some way, Penny says: “If you've got a talent, be it weaving or knitting or whatever, and you're in a position to use your hobby in other ways to help other people, why not? You're showing your talent to others, but it's in a good way, it's for a good cause.”