Woman donates to Chorley Repair Cafe in memory of her late father

Rachel Murray and Andy Littlejohns with the boxes of tools.

A woman has donated boxes of her late father’s tools to the Chorley Repair Cafe, ensuring his memory lives on.

Rachel Murray, 43, from Adlington, brought boxes of unopened tools and electrical components to the cafe’s session last weekend to honour her dad Raymond, who died 18 months ago.

Raymond was an avid fixer, spending most of his life inventing and creating things as well as helping other people mend their broken games, toys and cookers.

Rachel said: “When he passed away quite suddenly and I had to empty his workshop there was a lot of stuff in there which had never been used. It was all to do with electronics and really quite specific tools which only someone would know what they were would use.”

“I just feel it’s criminal to leave it or throw it away when these guys are doing such a good job helping people.

“If that can just help them to fix more things for more people I think my dad would be really, really pleased and proud.”

Items donated included a cabinet which Raymond made and labelled, with little bits of electronic components and instructions to go with it.

Rachel Murray with the cupboard her late father made.

Chorley Repair Cafe operates out of The Hollinshead Centre, providing a free repair service once a month, with volunteers offering their time to fix broken items for the community.

Andy Littlejohns, 36 set up the resource five years ago, seeing around 70 people per session bring everything from vacuum cleaners, toasters, sewing machines and TVs.

He said: “It started off as almost everyone who came along were people who wanted to do the right thing by the planet and fix things because it saved them from landfill.

“But increasingly we are seeing people who need things fixed because they can’t afford the replacement.

“We’ve fixed an off-road wheelchair at the start. The company who built it quoted £700 to rebuild the wheels and at that point, we had a bike repairer who did it for free.”

Andy Littlejohns who runs Chorley Repair Cafe.

Andy’s partner Ro volunteers at the cafe as a stitcher, enjoying the variety of items which come through the doors.

They said: “It could be somebody wants their trousers taken up or equally it could be a 70-year-olds teddy that has been cuddled so much.

“I had one where its whole belly fabric had gone and so I gave it a new tummy, but didn’t take any of the old fabric away.

“I gave it a new tummy and knitted a jumper so, you could still see that it had been loved to near death, but she could pick it up again without its innards falling out.”

With a team of about 20 volunteers now, the group can’t resist a challenge. Andy told Blog Preston they have been asked about doing a version of the cafe on tour, in different areas of the borough.

The cafe’s next session will be on 13 April, you can find out more information via their Facebook Page.

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