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Pre-loved items at hospice charity shop delights Jane Austen enthusiast

  • 9 October 2024

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Female with books smiling at the camera

If you have ever been into our Regent Street Charity Shop it is most likely you will have met our wonderful shop Manager, Helen Sheppard.

Helen has been the Shop Manager since 2010 and, like all our shop managers and volunteers, is very passionate about her position, donations and customers who buy them. She explained:

“I started as the Regent Street Deputy Manager on 20 December 2010. A year later the shop manager left and I was interviewed for the position which I got. I actually started as a Mill Road shop volunteer the year before that. I helped the manager, deputy and three volunteers to get the shop ready for it’s grand opening!

I was only there about two weeks (full time) as I then took a paid job in a shop in town. I really missed the Charity Shop and was thrilled when they phoned me asking me to apply for the deputy role at the Regent Street shop.”

Lady holding books in our charity shop
Helen Sheppard, Regent Street Charity Shop Manager

One such donation inspired Helen to message a previous contact. Helen continued:

“Back in the 1980’s Hazel Mills was my Biology Teacher. She was very popular – the kind of teacher you never forget.

Many years later, I met up with Mrs Mills again at a Coleridge School Reunion and we became friends on Facebook. I could see from her photos [on there] that she has a huge passion for all things Jane Austen. It’s not just a love of books we’re’ talking here; it’s the annual visits to the Hampshire Festival, to the birthplace and villages and anywhere else you will find Regency Britain. It’s the fashions of the time, the chance to wear costumes depicting Jane and her family and friends. It’s the afternoon tea, the strolls in the sun, the meetings of like-minded fans (now friends from all over the world).”

Female wearing Jane Austen style dress
Hazel Mills in Jane Austen’s house

Hazel Mills is a retired science teacher and a founder member and Chair of the Cambridge Group of the UK Jane Austen Society. Until her move to Denmark, she was a Regional Speaker for the Society.

Hazel discovered Austen as a thirteen year old Dorset schoolgirl when reading Pride and Prejudice and fell in love for the first time with Mr Darcy. She has researched the history of Jane Austen’s time, presenting illustrated talks, around England and Scotland, on diverse subjects including: Travel and Carriages in Jane Austen’s time; the Life of John Rawstorn Papillon, Rector of Chawton; Food production and Dining; Amateur Theatricals at Steventon, and the Illustrators of Austen’s novels.

More recently she contributes to the ‘Jane Austen Daily’ Facebook page, producing an article every day about Jane, her family or individuals and events in the world around her.

During months of lockdown, she began crafting [and hand stitching] Regency costumes from recycled materials that now adorn individuals in various countries.

She lives in a lovely house overlooking the sea with her husband who built her a library to house her extensive Austen collection, which includes over 260 different copies of Pride and Prejudice.

Helen continues:

“A few years ago I had some very beautiful Jane Austen books donated to the Regent Street Hospice Charity Shop. I immediately emailed Hazel a photo of the books and these were duly sent abroad and a monetary transfer made, as Hazel and her husband have now retired to Denmark.

Hazel was delighted, she loved them. After this I always saved the themed books, bags, jigsaws – anything I think Hazel would like to take back to her literacy group in Denmark.”

Since moving to Denmark, Hazel has remained the Chair of the Cambridge Group, thanks to modern technology, and has founded the Jane Austen Society of Jylland and Fyn. Hazel recently became the Ambassador for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, a charity promoting literacy skills across the world.

Books
Jane Austen Books donated to the charity shop

Helen concluded:

“Hazel and her husband try their very best to make the pilgrimage to the UK every year. In June they made the trip to Cambridge to view the items I’d been saving. The best place for Hazel to get to, this time, was the Hub – our big charity Retail Hub in Pampisford/Sawston, where Vikki Kirkpatrick, the Manager there was ready with her box of exciting items for Hazel to peruse!

Female with books smiling at the camera
Hazel Mills collecting her Jane Austen purchases

Unfortunately, I couldn’t meet up with my beloved ex-teacher as I was away on my summer holiday. Instead I was sent these marvellous photos of one happy customer, informing me that the majority of the items were now sold and heading back to Denmark. I will continue to save all things Jane Austen for our friend across the sea.”


This is a wonderful example of how other people’s pre-loved items give so much joy to others, whilst raising funds to support people in Cambridgeshire living with an advanced serious illness or other life-limiting condition and those who need end of life care.

If you have a pre-loved/ upcycling story you would like to share, we would love to hear from you. Please email communications@arhc.org.uk or telephone 01223 675888.