Sale helps raise £400 for charity

Douglas Fleeton (59) flew over on a week-long visit to Lisburn to sell the house at Mercer Street, once owned by his late mother Jean he decided to get rid of its contents by holding a garage sale, last Tuesday.

Items included old school books dating back from 1937, Irish linen, some antique furniture and even buffalo horns that came all the way from Sierra Leone Some interested and curious buyers purchased some of his mother Jean’s old items which included a 1930 Singer sewing machine, a griddle, some items that included a pair of buffalo horns that Douglas’s father brought back from the Second World War when he was based in Sierra Leone. He also sold off a griddle, crystal, glass ware and a lot of other interesting ornaments.

Other items that included a Chesterfield Suite and two chairs are to be sold off at a later date.

Douglas said that instead of keeping the money from the garage sale he had decided to give the money so charity could benefit.

He explained, “We thought it would be nice to go towards a cancer charity as my partner and I both suffered from cancer.

“Garage sales are quite popular back in Canada which was why we decided on selling the items this way. I could not bring the articles from my mother’s home back home and I know some are sentimental which is why I kept some. I did not want to benefit from the sale so thought it would be a nice idea to give the money to charity.

“I decided that the cancer charity seemed good because so many people have been affected by cancer.”

Since the death of his mother last year, Douglas used the house at Mercer Street as a base when he visited Lisburn and still plans to return again to Northern Ireland.

“I will still come home but I don’t know where I will stay,” said Douglas. “I still like to come to Lisburn.”