Child's coat found eight years later 250 miles away

A child's coat which was donated by a mother from East Sussex eight years ago has reappeared 250 miles away in a Powys town.

Anna Kilpatrick, 51, from Forest Row, was "very confused" when a woman from Builth Wells in Powys contacted her to say she had found an age 11-12 coat with the name and phone number of her now 20-year-old son.

The online influencer, who is one of 15 siblings, said she "always had hand-me-downs" and is passionate about sustainable fashion, regularly donating her children's clothes.

She said the experience "really sang to my heart" and shows if we care for our clothes, they can have long lives and many stories with different children.

Ms Kilpatrick said her phone rang with an unfamiliar number.

It turned out to be a "lovely" woman from Builth Wells, who had found a lost green coat with the name Isaac and a phone number on the label, and was trying to return it.

"In a matter of seconds I had to kind of work it all out," she said.

Ms Kilpatrick realised the H&M coat she had donated eight years ago to a friend had "somehow made its way from East Sussex right over to mid Wales".

After retracing its journey, she figured out that the woman she had given it to had a Welsh connection, which had brought the coat across the border.

When she was sent a photo of the coat, she was surprised to see it still looking "great" and said it shows that with proper care, even affordable items can last and have multiple lives.

"We are all such a brilliant part of the sustainability network without even realising," she said.

"It was just such a lovely kind of connection story of how one mum of a 10-year-old or 11-year-old in Wales can be linked with a much older mom of a now grown-up 6ft 3in bearded builder in in East Sussex, and how that coat that once wrapped up my little boy on the sidelines is doing the same for this little kid in in Wales.

"It was just so lovely."

Coming from a big family, Ms Kilpatrick said she had always been used to wearing second hand clothes.

"We were always clothed from the jumble sales that my mum went to, and came back with bin bags full of bits and pieces," she said.

While she once felt embarrassed about this, her outlook on sustainable fashion journey changed in 2012 when she became a single parent.

"I started buying only second hand stuff because it was one thing I could control. I could control the clothes, but I couldn't control the cost of the housing, electricity and food."

After receiving compliments on her outfits, she began sharing her journey on Instagram and now has more than 80,000 followers.

Ms Kilpatrick, who has spent the past 13 years not buying new clothes, said she was "extra excited" to share her story due to her passion for sustainability.

Her main message is for others realise that "all these little bits of magic that we're doing when we're donating things, they have a big impact".

She added: "Just remember the good practices that our grandparents used to do.

"They used to share stuff and make things last a really long time, and I think we just have to look over our shoulders a little bit and take a few tips from how people lived in the past, and then we'll be looking forward to a better future."