THE owner of a prom dress shop which has been forced to close has donated two very special mannequins to a college in Andover.

As previously reported, Kate Lamb has been supporting Andover residents in extreme financial difficulties who would otherwise miss out on proms.

She announced on Facebook on Sunday, January 8, that she will sadly need to close the 'Andover Prom Dress' initiative with "immediate effect".

Kate, who has been running the service for the past four years, said she is no longer able to meet the huge increase in demand for prom dresses alongside her main career.

READ MORE: Andover Free Prom dress shop closes with immediate effect

She said it was with a heavy heart she would need to close the initiative due to a “significant change in personal circumstances”.

Since then she has taken to Facebook again to inform residents that two special mannequins, which were donated to her shop, have gone to a new home.

She posted: "When I started the prom dress initiative a few years ago, I was contacted by a very kind stranger, Rosemarie Martin, who had seen us on BBC news and purchased these two mannequins and had them shipped to us as a random act of kindness in honour of her Mother who had recently passed away.

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"Now that our initiative has had to close, I wanted to put these mannequins to great ethical use long term, to benefit opportunities for the young people in our community.

"I was thrilled to donate these to Andover College today to support the creative design studies of our local fashion and textiles students."

She went on to say that she hopes "these [the mannequins] help spark some amazing creations and lifelong aspirations."

Kate previously told the Advertiser: "It is sad to see my four years of effort shutting down. It took a lot of effort to turn it around from the ground to a successful and helpful initiative.

"In addition, I was made redundant from my previous job last year. My new full-time job requires me to travel to London. I would sadly not be able to meet this huge new unforeseen increase in demand alongside my full-time career. It is far too much for one person.”