Charity shop doll takes 5,000-mile detour

A rare doll sold by a hospice to raise funds has finally reached its buyer after a 4,490-mile detour around the world.

The vintage red-haired My Girl Doll was donated to the Oxford-based Sobell House, which sold it for £310 to a buyer in Italy.

But the parcel spent months in transit, visiting Washington and West Virginia, while Jay Boydon, who manages the charity's online shop sales, kept tracking it down.

When it arrived, the collector named the doll Sybelle Jay after Ms Boydon, who said the gesture was "one of those little things that makes this job so special".

Sobell House said the donated doll had attracted "international attention" and Ms Boydon had been "over the moon with the valuable sale".

"I packaged her carefully, checked the address twice and sent her off myself," she said.

But when the doll failed to arrive two weeks later, Ms Boydon started tracking it and found out it had ended up in Washington, USA.

"We send parcels all over the world, but this one had taken a serious detour," she said.

She contacted the United States Postal Service (USPS) and arranged for the package to be sent back to the UK.

But after a few more weeks, she found it had instead moved to West Virginia.

She said she had almost resigned herself to refunding the buyer, but reached out one last time.

The postal services promised to return the doll to Sobell House Bicester Superstore.

Then the buyer suddenly received an email that her parcel had arrived in Italy after spending a month in customs.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard she'd named the doll after me," Ms Boydon said.

"Every item sold helps support the hospice, so I'll always do my best to see a sale through, no matter how far the parcel travels."

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