THE arrival of Aidan Michael Dargue has ended a 20-year wait by his great, great aunt and brought unexpected joy to a Durham WI.

In 1983, Ruth Brown, of Durham, won first prize in a raffle - a quilt made by Merry Oaks WI.

Traditionally, the quilt is used to wrap up newborn babies, but at the time Miss Brown, 79, said she was expecting a long wait.

"I tried to give the quilt back to the people who organised the raffle and the WI, because at that point I knew there was not much chance of a baby in our family," she said.

So she carefully wrapped the ornate cotton embroidered quilt in sheets of crepe paper and tucked it away, until her great, great nephew was born in Surrey earlier this year.

"It is such a beautiful quilt and had no use at the time I won it in the raffle, so I wrapped it up nicely and put it away carefully and that was how it stayed for 20 years," she said.

"When Aidan arrived, I was thrilled to bits that the family could finally use it.

"I said I would give the quilt to the first baby born in my immediate family. The family has taken its time to get use out of it, but Aidan is gorgeous."

Margaret Thornhill, one of the WI members who made the quilt, said: "This is a happy ending to the project that we started in 1983.

"We were really pleased to see the photos of the baby in the quilt after all these years."