LOVER Repair Café has achieved another milestone as it celebrates its 5,000th repair.

The repaired item, a 68-year-old doll called Mandy, was brought to the café by Sally, who asked the team to provide some TLC to the treasured doll.

Mandy was in a poor state; her head and legs were not working, she had lost her voice and eyelids, and she was naked.

The repair café team were delighted to be able to return Mandy back to Sally, fully restored and dressed in a new tailor-made frock, as part of a celebration, as Mandy is also the Café’s 5,000th repair since it opened in March 2019.

Salisbury Journal: The repair cafe celebrating its 5000th item restorationThe repair cafe celebrating its 5000th item restoration (Image: Lover Repair Cafe)READ MORE: Lover Repair Cafe celebrates special milestone almost four years after opening

Lover Repair Café’s team of repairers take on the repair of all sorts of items including electrical items, small kitchen appliances, toys, furniture, tools, textiles, ceramics, clocks, watches and technical items (such as laptops and tablets).

Since its founding, it has raised more than £28,000 for local charities, including Salisbury Hospital’s Stars Appeal, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Salisbury Hospice, Home-Start South Wiltshire and more.

On average, Lover Repair Café’s volunteer team tackles around 90 items a month – and successfully repairs almost all of them.  This means repaired items are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. By completing these 5,000 repairs the team have diverted an estimated 15 tonnes from landfill and saved more than 160 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Salisbury Journal: Sally with the restored MandySally with the restored Mandy (Image: Lover Repair Cafe)SEE ALSO: Six-year-old wolf becomes new 'love interest' at Longleat Wildlife Park

A repair café is a meeting place where visitors bring their broken items along for repair. 

Visitors are encouraged to stay with the repairer so that they learn how to undertake repairs themselves, or they can meet others and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in a positive, friendly atmosphere while their repair is carried out.

Lover Repair Café is part of the Repair Café Foundation, a global movement of some 2,800 Repair Cafes across 30 countries with 42,000 volunteers and repairing more than 50,000 items every month.