Thousands raised for 'diamond' shop owner with cancer

Loyal customers have raised thousands of pounds to help a shopkeeper enjoy the final months of her life.

Claire Bailey, 52, has been behind the counter of the Sun newsagents shop in Shepshed, Leicestershire, for the past 28 years but was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer two months ago.

Fundraising organiser Tereza Lingard described Bailey as an "agony aunt" for the town - someone who "listened to everyone's problems" but rarely took time away from the shop.

Bailey thanked customers and said: "This job is my life. As long as someone goes out with a smile, that's my job done."

Bailey, who worked in the shop before going on to buy it with her husband Rob Lord, said she had been ill for a year before being told in May she had incurable cancer.

Lingard, 53, set up a fundraising page to raise money for the couple because she said it was the only way she could encourage Bailey to "take time off away from the shop in her last few months".

"She has been a massive part of the Shepshed community and I didn't want the people to say 'if only we had known, we could have done something'," she said.

"I wanted her and Rob to have some quality time and take the pressure off them a little bit.

"She listens to everybody else's problems. It's all about the customers and not her. Nothing is about her. She's like an agony aunt.

"So many people have relied on her over the years. It's going to leave such a black hole without her."

Adrian Lingard, 64, said 165 people in the town had donated their money to the fund, which currently stands at £3,300.

"Remarkably we got lots and lots of people donating money so Claire can spend the rest of her time. She's doing things that she's maybe had on her wishlist, so we can make the last time of her life memorable," he said.

"One of the things she wanted to do is go on train journeys and to East Midlands Airport and stay in a hotel looking over the runway, in fact the airport has offered her a VIP tour."

Bailey said her first trip using the money was from Loughborough to Portsmouth on the Pullman Express, a luxury high-speed diesel-electric train.

"I felt like a princess," she said. "It was so special to be treated like royalty. I want to thank each of them who donated. It's magical. I can't stop smiling."

Before Bailey left for her train trip, customers came together to tell her how much she meant to them - including Sue and Tony Jones, who have known her since their children delivered papers for the shop.

"What you see is what you get, and anyone who comes in here. She welcomes everybody, you can have a laugh and a joke with her," said Sue.

Another customer, Andy Tebbs, remembered Bailey being the first person to welcome him into the town.

"She's an absolute diamond, she's so beautiful with a caring heart, and a brilliant sense of humour," he said.

Bailey became emotional when she learned how much had been donated.

"I thought I'd get £50 and we are now up to three thousand something, I can't get my head around it," she said.

"I just wanna go to the seaside and have hot doughnuts that burn your lips. I want chips and curry sauce, I want five-star hotels, lots of Stilton cheese... just things to make me happy.

"I'm not one of those down people that are gonna think 'oh God I've got this, I've got that, I'm dying'.

"No, I'm still here, I can still smile, I can still make somebody else smile.

"They're not customers, they might come as a customer but they leave as a friend and that to me makes the difference."

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