Cornish mother-daughter duo raises thousands for charity selling preloved clothes

ITV News' Marina Jenkins' met Alice and Siri at their shop in Torpoint

A mother and daughter duo from Cornwall, who were saddened by the amount of clothes being thrown away, have taken it upon themselves to solve the issue locally.

In 2021, Alice Trethewey and her daughter Siri Thomas, began holding pop-up events selling second hand clothes, donated by people in the Torpoint area.

Over the years, 2nd Hand Sundays has grown and the pair now have a permanent base at Geek salon in Torpoint.

The community interest company sells preloved clothes and the profit goes to local causes and charities that are underfunded.

Their ethos is to not only help the environment and challenge fast fashion culture, but to help their local community in south east Cornwall.

So far, more than £5,000 has been raised for the Millbrook Skate Park Project, Millbrook Care Hub, Acorn Rental, The Peninsula Trust's Old Ship project, Kingfishers pre-school, the Music Youth Lab and Community Fund.

Alive, co-founder of 2nd Hand Sundays, said: "It's grown a lot bigger and a lot faster than we anticipated.

"It started with just a small group, but we've grown 20 volunteers and five directors. We're now open every Sunday at our shop in Torpoint, instead of pop-up events every few months.

"The amount of money we're able the raise has increased hugely and the volume of clothes, which we're saving from landfill, has grown so much."

Every three months, a new local cause is chosen to financially support. One of the projects to benefit recently, is the Millbrook Skate Park.

Kelly Stone, who is a committee member for the project, said: "I’ve got two kids who love skating, and I used to spend my time driving up and down to Newquay or Mount Hawke, they’re both an hour each way.

"So for your children to be able to get themselves to a really good skatepark, it's a really important thing for kids to be able to get out outdoors, so good for them, and it's free."

The next cause to be supported is the Torpoint Play Tots, the only mother and baby group left in the town.

Emma Bartley, who is a volunteer with the group, said: "We’ve been struggling since Covid with numbers and our rent is going up. So it’s a massive help for us to keep going for a few more months without us worrying.

"Parents need to get out and for some people, it’s the only time they leave the house. So to come down and have a cup of tea with the children, it’ll really helps."

The ethos of 2nd Hand Sundays is to sell affordable, good quality clothes and in turn, help the environment and the community.

Co-founder Siri Thomas said: "We want to make our shop more accesible, fun and like a normal shopping experience. Charity shops are great, I shop in them all the time.

"But we're trying to make our shop really vibrant. We curate a lot of our stock, put things in colour and size order. Some of our baby clothes are four items for £1, so we really want to be thought of as affordable.

With the more items that are sold, Alice and Siri plan to help many more local causes - and hope second hand clothing soon becomes people's first choice. Find out more about 2nd Hand Sundays here.