The latest episode of The Repair Shop left fans in floods of tears as a guest revealed the heart-wrenching reason she needed her cherished family heirloom restored urgently.

Wendy Bray presented hosts of the BBC show Suzie and Steve Fletcher with her late mother’s old leather writing case, which held a lot of sentimental value, but was in need of TLC.

She explained that her mother was gifted the case by her parents when she left home at 17 and then went on to use it to write letters home when she served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the war – always using blue paper.

Her mother had signed the Official Secrets Act, which meant she couldn’t discuss her role in the war until the late 1970s.

Wendy said: ‘So much love has gone into that, so many letters home were written from that and it seems such a a shame that it’s in this state now really.’

The latest episode of The Repair Shop left fans in floods of tears as guest Wendy revealed the heart-wrenching reason she needed her cherished family heirloom restored urgently

Wendy Bray presented hosts Suzie and Steve Fletcher with her late mother’s old writing case which held a lot of sentimental value but was in need of TLC

Steve and Suzie Fletcher are siblings, restoration experts and co-hosts of The Repair Shop

She told Suzie and Steve that her wish was to see the writing case restored to its former glory so that it looked the same as it did when she saw her her mother use it as a child.

However, Wendy revealed the tragic reason why she needed them to repair the heirloom so urgently.

She said: ‘I want to give this to my daughter for my granddaughter. I need to do this fairly soon because I’ve got stage four cancer. 

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‘So, although it’s hard for me to believe, sitting here, probably as hard as it is for you to believe looking at me! I’ve only got about four or five months left.

‘So, I want to do this, so that it’s done for her. To be something that I’ve given my daughter to give to my granddaughter that reminds her not only of me but of her great-granny.’

Leather worker Suzie promised to give it her all to get her mother’s writing case looking brand new again.

When Wendy left the workshop, Suzie said: ‘So Wendy has explained that she unfortunately has limited time that is something that I feel is very brave of her to tell us. With that, it gives me a huge responsibility.’

The expert then got to work dissembling the heirloom to rebuild and strengthen it.

Wendy returned with her daughter to collect the case and was taken back by its transformation. 

Wendy’s mother, who pᴀssed the writing case down to her, pictured as a young woman 

Wendy was overwhelmed with emotion when she saw her mother’s writing case restored to its former glory

She was particularly moved when she discovered that Wendy had left a surprise inside – blue paper.

Welling up, she said: ‘Oh that’s so lovely! That’s so lovely! Oh, what a sweet thing to do, that’s really sweet because it always had blue paper in it!’

She expressed her graтιтude to Suzie for the transformation and told her she also restored memories, which are incredibly important to her.

A fan on social media platform X wrote: ‘I’m not crying, you are. Every time with this show.’

‘The Repair Shop really testing my waterproof makeup tonight,’ a second echoed.

While a third simply posted a string of crying emojis.

This is not the first time a restoration on the show has left fans teary eyed.

In September, viewers became emotional while listening to Camilla Greenwood talk about her stuffed animal, the only survivor of a house fire which sadly claimed the life of Camilla’s mother Linda.

Camilla said of the bear: ‘He was given to my mum when she was little and he was with her throughout her childhood.’

After the craftsmen restored her bear, fans ran to social media to say the episode had them ‘in bits’ and was ‘heartbreaking. 

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.