THE mother of a 14-year-old girl who died last December has praised the owner of a phone shop who repaired her water damaged phone, which contained priceless messages from her beloved daughter.
Dawn Cubin dropped her phone down the toilet last week and was left distraught at the idea that she could lose hundreds of messages from Hannah, who died from an undetected heart condition.
Also on the phone were dozens of messages of support from friends and family following the fateful day last December.
Despite feeling helpless, Mrs Cubin took the phone to their iFixer in Park Lane, Chippenham where they worked their magic to restore it.
“I was really upset when my phone went down the loo as Hannah’s message and those of love and support from so many people were lost,” said Mrs Cubin, who lives in Crudwell.
“Without any optimism for retrieval I took my phone to iFixer in Chippenham, who has mended various devices over the years.
“I explained how important the messages were and he said he would do his best but was not at all hopeful.
“He worked late Thursday night desperately trying to restore my phone and he called me on Friday to say he had done it. I burst out crying when he told me but I don’t know what I would do if I had lost them.”
Adie Lanc, who fixed the phone, said he didn’t know how precious the contents of the phone were until Dawn walked through his door last week.
He said: “I knew Dawn, as she came in with Hannah about a year ago when she broke her phone but I didn’t actually know that Hannah had passed away.
“She told me her story and I really felt for her and I knew I had to get it working again.
“It was always going to be a hard repair, as so many things can go wrong with water damaged phones but luckily I know how to get rid of water damage and the phone wasn’t dead.
“After hearing about the circumstances, I didn’t want it to cost Dawn anything.
“I had a screen in stock and I knew how urgent it was so I just fixed it and didn’t charge her anything. It is nice to give something back to the community and my aim was to put a smile back on her face.”
Mrs Cubin has since backed up her phone and has returned her focus to setting up a memorial fund in Hannah’s name under Cardiac Risk In The Young. They hope that the fund can pay for a mobile testing unit which will cost £80,000.
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