A Scots charity that helps blind babies has hit the jackpot after receiving a £10,000 Cartier bracelet as a donation.
Sight Action staff were left gobsmacked when the luxury item was handed into their Inverness office.
The charity is raising money to buy much-needed sensory toys for blind babies.
Their appeal asked around 3,000 blind and visually impaired Scots to donate unwanted jewellery.
The bracelet donor, didn't leave a name after giving the charity a host of items and didn't hint at the bracelet believed to be worth up to £10,000.
It has been overwhelmed by the generosity of those clients, friends and families, with £1,500 in cash donations also received.
But the star item so far, now stored safely away from the charity’s premises, blew them away.
Cartier is the 173-year-old French jewellery conglomerate, renowned across the world for luxury goods of fine craftsmanship.
“You look at it at first and think it can’t possibly be genuine. None of us here had ever seen, or held, a Cartier box or piece of jewellery,” Mrs Mitchell said. “It took us by surprise, to say the least!
“Looking online, at first we thought it was worth hundreds not thousands but, new, it is worth £10,000 and this one, while second hand, hasn’t a scratch on it.
“I spoke to the British auction house Christie’s last Friday and, if we go with them, it will be in next year’s June auction.
“It was handed in anonymously, along with other good pieces of jewellery, by a youngish, middle-aged chap. We’ve no way of contacting him as things stand.”
Sight Action, which raises all its own income, devised the appeal after its library of sensory toys ran low.
“Sensory toys mean an awful lot more to a blind baby than just a simple toy,” Mrs Mitchell explained.
“A lot of early learning comes through vision. It is otherwise very difficult to stimulate a blind baby so we regularly lend out these specialised toys, which are not always cheap.
“People have been so generous and we would now love members of the wider public to contribute if they can.”
Sight Action, like sister charity Blindcraft, is part of the Highlands and Islands Society for Blind People, founded in 1868.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the jewellery appeal can contact the charity at 01463 233663 or email admin@highlandsensory.org.uk
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