'Ugly' handbag changing hands for charity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33521329

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An "ugly" handbag has been put to good use "travelling" thousands of miles being auctioned for charity.

The yellow accessory was donated to a church in Worcestershire, but thought too "hideous" to be a raffle prize.

Instead fundraiser Gill Edmonds put it on eBay with the tag "no redeeming features", and it sold for £26.

Since March it has been auctioned by five owners and has just been sold by a cancer patient, Natalie Hunter, of Newcastle, for £1,090.

Mother-of-four Mrs Hunter, of High Heaton, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in May and is undergoing chemotherapy.

She is blogging about her experience with cancer in the hope of leaving a legacy for her children Thomas, 10, Izzy, four, and 20-month-old twins Owain and Ruairidh.

The 37-year-old is raising money for a charity, Team Verricco, which supported her when she was getting a second opinion on her cancer.

The bag began its journey in March when an 89-year-old woman donated it to church fundraiser Gill Edmonds of Great Witley, Worcestershire.

It has even been sold to a woman in Norway and has raised hundreds of pounds for different charities.

Ms Edmonds said: "When I saw it I thought, 'no-one is going to want to win that in a raffle - the only way to sell it was to talk up its bad points.

"It's made of the worst possible plastic and is a mustard colour with a brown handle and added spikes which look like a stegosaurus back.

"I stuck it on eBay calling it an ugly yellow handbag with no redeeming features. The woman who gave it to me wasn't offended and thought it was hilarious."