On the eve of 2015 a woman from Harpenden came up with an idea to honour her late mother and, hopefully, raise some money for Cancer Research UK. Almost 18 months later she has raised an incredible £57,000 and has no intention of stopping.

Caroline Jones committed to wearing a charity shop bought outfit every day for a year after her mother, who worked in Cancer Research’s Harpenden charity shop, died of breast cancer in October 2014 at the age of 72.

She tells me: “I thought my immediate circle of friends would giggle at me and it would be a very low key sharing experience on Facebook and maybe through texting, saying what are you wearing today that looks ridiculous.

“I gave no more thought to it than that. I put £1,000 cheekily really I thought I’d probably get £500. I wasn’t doing anything, I wasn’t sweating, I wasn’t running marathon, no cycling up the Alps. I was doing nothing for anybody else other than me. I thought all I was doing was getting dressed.

“It went very wide very quickly - the press picked up on it - 97,000 people had seen my images by the end of the first week so I connected with CRUK, spoke to the press team and the shop and they said just take stuff. Take it wear it and we’ll decide what you do with it.”

In a bid to raise even more money, Caroline sold off her entire wardrobe in November last year and his too received a huge following and led to further success.

“It was the equivalent to the Harrods sale in its heyday, I was pinned against the wall and all of my clothes were moving, it was a bit like Fantasia, they were all moving out the door, it was a really mixed feeling of I’m happy that they’re going but I’m sad as well.

“It was not thought through,” Caroline laughs as she tells me: “I was left with high summer and evening wear and it was the end of November, fine if you’re going on a cruise.”

So back into the charity shops she went to search for more seasonal garb, and she has continued to do so despite the charity year coming to an end.

Her work has not finished, however, and in a short six weeks from February to March this year, Caroline wrote a book with all the images of her year of outfits and released it last week with every penny going straight to Cancer Research UK.

“Every day I could remember where I was, how it felt, how I felt in every outfit. I vividly remember. What I tried to do was obviously talk about my reasons for my campaign and also my mum but I wanted to move away from that and it be a style journal and a guide to inspire other women and men to wear preloved and see it as an option.”

You undoubtedly need an eye for fashion to pull off such a stylish year and then create a fashion guide from it, so I wondered where her interest in fashion first began and, rather aptly, it began with her mother.

“I always wanted to spend time with my mum, I valued her opinion the most. Always with fashion she knew whether something was right or wrong. She loved me having a love of fashion so we would spend time together and that was a really important part of my growing up, going to Chelsea Girl in the ‘80s, trying on pieces and having time together. I never went shopping with groups of girls, I only ever wanted my mum with me.”

Although the focus shifted later on when her mum got ill, Caroline says they still shopped together when they were able.

“When you’ve got somebody close to you that’s living with cancer your priorities change and your focus changes so it wasn’t really about fashion at that moment, it was about spending time with her and making her feel great. We would spend time shopping for her, she changed her wardrobe dramatically as she lost weight and changed shape. She discovered labels in John Lewis, Whistles and Hobbs, Reiss and different brands.

“You need to start with knowing your body shape, I can’t stress that enough, maybe that comes with getting older, you settle, you accept what your body shape is because it changes when you have children, I’m a different shape than I was when I was in my 20s.”

So what advice does she have for charity shoppers?

“I try to think out of season, so now thinking about winter coats. If you can flip over your seasons it’s good. I will always look for spring wear in early February.

“People are very generous and the donations never stop. The challenge the charity shop sector has is changing that perception and making people stop and actually browse. The brilliant bit for me is let’s have a look.”

Caroline’s book, Knickers’ Models’ Own: A Year of Frugal Fashion, is available from the Harpenden Cancer Research UK shop along with a wonderful selection of preloved items, or online at giftshop.cancerresearchuk.org