A 68-YEAR-OLD in need of some TLC became the 5,000th repair carried out at a Salisbury café.

But worry not, for Mandy is not a real person, she is a doll and was taken to the Lover Repair Café in the city by owner, Sally.

While she may be an outdated representation now, Sally’s beloved Mandy was in a pretty sorry state; she’d lost her voice, neither her head nor legs were working, her eyelids were missing and she didn’t even have any clothes.

However, the team was delighted to be able to return Mandy to her former good health and give her back to Sally, restored and dressed in a new tailor-made frock.

And little did Mandy or Sally know, but the doll was also the café’s 5,000th repair since they opened in March 2019.

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).

The team has raised more than £28,000 for charities including Salisbury Hospital’s Stars Appeal, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Salisbury Hospice, Home Start South Wiltshire and more.

On average, the repair café’s volunteer team tackles around 90 items a month – and successfully repairs almost all of them, meaning they are used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away.

By topping 5,000 repairs, the team has diverted an estimated 15 tonnes from landfill and saved the equivalent of more than 160 tonnes of CO2.

Lover Repair Café is part of the Repair Café Foundation, a global movement of some 2,800 repair cafes across 30 countries.