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A guest on The Repair Shop was left emotional after hearing a treasured family heirloom for the first time in her life. Fenella Haffenden, who was born deaf, appeared on the BBC One show on Wednesday (April 8) as experts restored a delicate mechanical bird in a golden cage - a piece tied to childhood memories she had never fully experienced. Fenella, 62, explained that as a child she would visit her grandmother in Jersey, where the bird was wound up before dinner for the children to enjoy.

But while others listened to it sing, Fenella could only watch. She told the team she would pretend to hear it, joining in with the moment despite not knowing what it sounded like. The bird later went missing and was only recently discovered in a relative's loft - badly damaged and no longer working. Experts stepped in to restore the intricate piece, bringing its mechanism - and its faint "twirp" sound - back to life.

Ahead of the reveal, Fenella admitted: "It's bittersweet because i want to hear the bird twirping the way it used to". When the restored bird finally chirped, she was immediatley moved.

Fighting back tears, she told the experts: "You have no idea how much this means to me. You have given me a missing piece of my soul.

I just cannot believe how beautifully restored this bird is. It's fulfilled that missing jigsaw piece in my life. It's wonderful. Thank you so much".

Fenella's appearance also shone a light on her extraordinary life story. She learned to speak with the help of a speech therapist as a child, after her mother realised she was deaf when she was 18 months old.

Around 20 years ago, she received a cochlear implant, allowing her to hear more clearly for the first time - making the moment even more powerful.

Her life has also been marked by tragedy, after her husband was killed by a freak lightning strike, leaving her to raise their three young children alone.

In an interview with Okehampton Times, she said: "As a young child our family used to visit my grandmother in Jersey who used to wind up a singing bird in a cage prior to dinner every day for all us children to see.

"Sadly being deaf I could not hear it but I was amazed at the beauty of the movement of the bird in its golden cage.

"I was so used to pretend to join in the experiences everyone, that I just behaved as if I could hear it sing. But I longed to hear what everyone else was hearing."