\n The red-haired ‘My Girl Doll,’ donated to Sobell House Hospice Charity in Oxfordshire, was sold through the charity\u2019s online shop for \u00a3310 to a buyer in Italy, only to take a 4,490-mile detour through the United States before finally reaching its intended destination.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jay Boydon, online trading manager at Sobell House, said: “I packaged her carefully, checked the address twice and sent her off myself.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Everything looked perfect and I expected she\u2019d arrive in Italy in about a week.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The buyer collected the vintage dolls which were popular in the 80s.\n<\/p>\n
\n “She was delighted and when we can sell a donation for over \u00a3300, and it\u2019s great income for the hospice.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Two weeks later, the doll was still missing, and Ms Boydon began tracking the parcel.\n<\/p>\n
\n She discovered it had ended up in Washington in the US instead of Italy.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “I thought it had to be a mistake.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We send parcels all over the world, but this one had taken a serious detour.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Boydon contacted the United States Postal Service (USPS), and after several attempts, was told the package would be returned to the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n But weeks passed with no sign of the parcel.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tracking revealed the doll had moved to West Virginia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jay was all but resigned to having to make a refund to the European buyer, but with determination, tried one last time to contact someone who might be able to help.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eventually, once again, the promise was made to return the doll from West Virginia.\n<\/p>\n
\n After another lengthy wait, the buyer in Italy finally received an email confirming the doll\u2019s arrival.\n<\/p>\n
\n It had spent a month in customs before being delivered.\n<\/p>\n
\n The buyer was so delighted she named the doll ‘Sybelle Jay’ in honour of Ms Boydon.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Boydon said: “I couldn\u2019t believe it when I heard she\u2019d named the doll after me.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s one of those little things that makes this job so special.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Every item sold helps support the hospice, so I\u2019ll always do my best to see a sale through, no matter how far the parcel travels.”\n<\/p>\n
\n For Ms Boydon, each sale represents more than just a transaction.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “You never know what treasures might be donated.\n<\/p>\n
\n “When something rare comes in and fetches a good price, it\u2019s a real thrill, because every penny helps people in our community who need hospice care.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The doll\u2019s story highlights the dedication of staff and volunteers who make every sale count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The red-haired ‘My Girl Doll,’ donated to Sobell House Hospice Charity in Oxfordshire, was sold through the charity\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-571512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115552431835447822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}