Grieving bride-to-be whose fiance died weeks before big day - is refused refund for wedding dress

A boutique refused to give a woman a cash refund for her wedding dress after her husband to be died unexpectedly.

Val Conway's sweetheart Graham Thomas tragically passed away after a sudden illness eight weeks before their big day - which was to be next Saturday.

Val, from Llandudno bought the dress from P3 Ladies Designer Wear in Deganwy.

And while she says the shop staff were "extremely sympathetic" it was made clear that it wasn't their policy to refund money, Wales Online reports.

The boutique's owner Ged Mortimore defended the shop's refund policy and said it "bent over backwards" to offer Val a £300 credit note.

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But the grief-stricken widow was in no mood to go on a spending spree so her friend Jan Ormond stepped in and suggested raffling the credit note.

Jan said: "I said (to Val) surely we know 300 people between us. If they pay £1 a ticket at least you will get your money back."

Val agreed to the idea and not only did the raffle raise the £300 she'd spent on the deep cobalt blue lace dress but another £350 on top of that.

She has now donated £175 each to her fiance Graham's favourite charities - the RNLI and St David's Hospice in Llandudno.

Widow Val, a charity worker, met Coleg Llandrillo lecturer Graham and he won her heart.

She told the Daily Post how she was so looking forward to marrying Graham, a lecturer in business and management at Coleg Llandrillo: "He was funny and kind hearted."

Her dream was shattered on June 29 when Graham suffered a pulmonary embolism and died later the same day at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan.

Mr Mortimore from P3 expressed his sympathy to Val and reiterated the boutique's policy: "It clearly states in the shop that we don't do returns on wedding purchases.

"Unfortunately, the dress was bought in May and it was nearly two months before she brought it back.

"We were sorry for her situation so due to her bereavement we bent over backwards to give her a credit note, which we would not normally do."

Mr Mortimore added that "99.9%" of P3's customers are "very satisfied" and this was an isolated case.

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