Sutton’s Idlewells Shopping Centre is hosting a pop-up fundraising sale of around 80 wedding dresses this month, to help a local mum currently fighting to lengthen the life of her son, who has an inoperable brain tumour.

Jack Sanders, 34, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012, when his daughter was just four. He has since undergone major surgery twice, but and has recently been given the worst possible news – that his tumour is active again and no longer operable.

Jack’s mum, Sandra Marshall, has been working hard to raise funds to pay for life-lengthening treatments – such as immunotherapy, vaccines and dendtritic cell therapy – involving travel abroad and funds that she simply doesn’t have.

Sandra, a hairdresser, said: “This treatment is not available on the NHS and is very expensive, but we are determined to give him the best possible chance and the best possible treatment to enable him to see his beautiful daughter grow up.”

In January, Sandra contacted Idlewells Centre manager, Chloe O’Donnell, desperate to find somewhere to house and sell a significant number of high-quality wedding gowns donated by one generous supporter.

“When we were contacted by Sandra we were touched by her heartbreaking story,” Said Chloe. “Having a daughter myself, I can only begin to imagine the devastation of discovering that you may not be around to see your child grow up.

“I was determined to try to help and thankfully the owners of the centre, Ellandi, granted us permission to use one of the empty units for a few days.”

The designer gowns, including popular designer brands such as Maggie Sottero and Veromia, are a mixture of brand new dresses and ex-hire dresses in a huge range of sizes, from 6 to 22.

The dresses were all surplus stock donated to Sandra and Jack by a business owner who heard of their plight and was keen to help.

The sale will launch on the day of Idlewells’ Valentine’s Day ‘Love Snaps’ event, 10th February, and continue until 4pm on Monday, 12th February – before Jack returns to Germany for another course of treatment.

Continued Chloe: “We are doing our very best to ensure as many people as possible hear of this one-off wedding dress sale, and Sandra raises plenty of money for her son.”

Sandra has set up a Justgiving page, that has successfully raised enough money to treat Jack initially, but there is still much more needed to give him the maximum valuable time possible with his daughter

Anyone wishing to help with further fundraising activity, or who can permanently store or display any remaining dresses, is invited to contact Idlewells, who will pass on their details directly to Sandra.

Sale opening times:

Saturday, 10th February – 9am – 5.30pm

Sunday, 11th February – 10am – 4.00pm

Monday, 12th February – 8.30am – 4pm.