The dress was sold from this charity shop in Didsbury
A distraught teenager is appealing for help to find her GCSE coursework after a charity shop inadvertently sold a dress she had spent months creating for just £5.
Grace Leech had been thrilled when she found out her lovingly-crafted Minnie Mouse dress had been specially picked to go on display in the Didsbury Village Cancer Research store on Friday, June 23 as part of the Didsbury Arts Festival.
But on Saturday when she and mum Clair went to take a look at the fruits of her labour, they were shocked to discover it missing, and hoped it had just been moved to another part of the shop.
But two days later staff at the Wilmslow Street store confirmed the dress had in fact been mistakenly sold by a well-meaning charity shop volunteer for a mere five pounds.
Clair and Year 11 pupil Grace, who attends the Barlow RC high school, are now desperately appealing for the return of the dress which counts for 60 per cent of her product design GCSE - as they don’t know if examiners have even had the chance to mark it.
Comedian Jason Manford has even shared the family’s appeal on social media with his 255,000 Twitters followers to help try and reunite them with the unique garment.
Sixteen-year-old Grace, who lives in Cheadle, said:
Cancer Research has apologised for the mistake and say they are urging their customers to spread the word to track the fancy dress outfit down.
Mum Clair, who works at Macclesfield firm Ace Garage Door Specialist, said:
Mum-of-four Clair added that Grace had initially been delighted when her dress was one of the outfits chosen by a school governor to go on display in charity shops for the Didsbury Arts Festival.
She said:
The special black and red polka-dot dress was made by Grace as part of a product design project to create a children’s dressing up outfit, and is a unique design.
Clair added:
The family hope that if their appeal is shared widely enough they’ll be able to get the dress returned safely.Alison Barbuti, Cancer Research UK spokesperson for the North West, said:
