A WOMAN has extended thanks to three men from Launceston Recycling Centre, who left no stone unturned when searching for her mother’s missing wedding ring after it slipped off her finger into the rubbish recently.

Helen Roe, from Egloskerry, was at the recycling centre in Launceston last Friday (September 29), getting rid of some old window panes, when she realised her mother’s gold wedding ring had somehow managed to slip in with the rubbish.

The wedding ring has special significance to Helen, as it belonged to her mother, Evelyn Roe, who passed away on September 4.

Evelyn’s ring was given to Helen, her eldest of six children, by the funeral directors on Wednesday, September 27, the date of Evelyn’s funeral.

Helen told the Post: “It’s very significant to me. We were throwing our stuff into the skip, and I suddenly realised that my ring was gone. The guys at the recycling centre started looking in the skip; they looked with long poles, looking for a glint of gold within the rubbish.”

After searching for about half an hour, Helen left with her husband, assuming that the ring was gone and they wouldn’t find it. She left her details with the centre, in case anything came of the missing ring.

But, miraculously, just ten minutes after returning home, Helen received a phone call from the recycling centre, claiming that they had found her mother’s wedding ring.

She continued: “We had a phone call after we left, and one of the guys had found the ring. His name is Clinton Nottle — he carried on searching for it because he was bored, and he found it!

“There were three of them, poring through the rubbish in the container. It was my mum’s gold ring — it’s nothing special, just gold, very plain — but I was given the ring two days before, so it’s of great significance to me.”

Clinton had continued his search after Helen had left the centre, deciding to flick over a rolled up carpet some distance away from the immediate search area, and the ring rolled out.

When Clinton returned the ring to Helen, she was delighted. She added: “Huge, grateful thanks to all at Launceston recycling for the heavy sifting! On my fingers now I have a ring from my daughter and one from my mother. That’s all I have and that’s all I want.”