Cathy Wood was always interested in vintage fashion, but as her children grew up and a series of operations left her in pain, she found running a stall gave back her sense of self
t Christmas last year, Cathy Wood’s family home in Manchester was disturbingly quiet. Her daughters, 19 and 21, were revising for exams. She says she and her husband “hardly saw anything of them … I was a bit fed up.” Bored and frustrated, she bought a 45kg She is speaking from her lounge, and behind her the room is crammed with rails of brightly coloured clothes.
Wood sold four pieces at her first market, which paid for the pitch and left a small surplus. Now, she sometimes returns home with 30 empty coat hangers. But it was the contact with customers and fellow traders that she found most rewarding. “It’s a lovely environment. You chat and get to know each other. I really enjoyed it because I had been deprived of contact with people,” she says.
Despite three operations to remove the mesh, Wood does not know “what’s been removed and what hasn’t … I’m still in some degree of pain all the time.” The pain of sitting for long periods made teaching on Zoom impossible. Being active, running her stall, handpicking clothes, buying in bulk, selecting, mending, ironing and steaming, she says, “helps to take focus away from both the pain and anxiety about what’s left in there. And I feel that I’m being useful.