The Mare and Foal Sanctuary is looking for donations of old necklaces, bracelets, earrings and more to help raise money for its horses in need.

The charity is collecting unwanted, unusable and broken jewellery as part of a new project called JUNK: Rubbish to Gold, organised by the Jewellery School of Birmingham City University. The initiative sees charities give old and unusable trinkets to the school, whose students will collate all of the donations and turn them into desirable items to resell. These new items will then be sold in an online silent auction – with each charity involved receiving a percentage of the profits proportional to the weight of the jewellery they donated.

Deputy area shops manager Adam Livsey is keen for everyone to send their old jewellery to The Mare and Foal Sanctuary and hopes the project will be a success.

“It’s great to be part of a scheme like this,” he said. “And raising funds for the Sanctuary is so important to help improve the lives of abandoned, neglected and abused horses.

“It really doesn’t matter what condition the jewellery is in. Broken, tarnished, damaged or just simply out of fashion, we are happy to take whatever items you’d like to get rid of!

“We can take the donations in any of our charity shops or at our Visitor Centre near Totnes.

“And remember, in exchange for the donated jewellery, JUNK: Rubbish to Gold will give a proportional percentage of the funds generated to the partnering charities, so the more we can send to them, the better.”

JUNK: Rubbish to Gold has been organised to coincide with the Jewellery School’s 125th anniversary. The jewellery transformation takes place from November 9th-13th and will be streamed live online. The online auction takes place on November 16th and 17th. Donations of jewellery must reach the Sanctuary by October 20th to allow time to reach the School.

For more information on JUNK: Rubbish to Gold visit www.facebook.com/rubbishtogold

For more information on The Mare and Foal Sanctuary visit www.mareandfoal.org call 01626 355969 or follow them on Facebook and Twitter @themareandfoal