The story of MORWEN the lap top

Here’s a lovely tale from our partners at Tech Resort - the gift that keeps on giving

Want to hear a story about one repurposed laptop? Read on…

Back in 2021, we had just started to collect unused, pre-loved laptops which we would refurbish, put in a bag and pass onto someone who really needed it.

We were getting notifications almost every day of people who were struggling to work, keep in touch with support, and to continue with education.

Our borough council (Eastbourne Borough) said they’d recently had a laptop refresh and were willing to donate the old machines that had been used by officers and councillors so that they, too, could be passed onto households in need.

In the second batch we collected was the laptop which we labelled E59.  In order to be able to tell one machine from another whilst we were working on them, we also gave them a name.  E59 was MORWEN.

She was a fairly old, quite chunky, HP laptop – definitely not one of the highest specifications we had.  She needed a new power supply and her camera wasn’t working so we added another one.  Nevertheless, she was spruced up and in April 2021 we sent her to Age UK East Sussex for one of their service users.

We don’t know exactly who received MORWEN, but the requests from Age UK at the time were all for older people who had health conditions and who, in the face of various pandemic restrictions, were finding themselves very socially isolated and at further risk of mental & physical health deterioration.

Fast-foward to Friday 11th July 2025, more than four years on.

Fiona and Luke were running a session at our brilliant partners,  HEART’s, infohub in the centre of Hastings.  As well as information, reassurance and somewhere to get a bit of friendly face-to-face support, the InfoHub provides digital inclusion services all the time they’re open. We provide a couple of pairs of extra hands on a Friday.

MORWEN reappeared at one of these sessions!  She is now on her third post-council owner but still running (albeit a little slowly) and her current owner had come to get some assistance.

When we calculate the carbon savings by refurbishing old laptops we assume that the machines get one more owner – and about two years of extra life.  In the case of MORWEN this is an understatement!

We do wonder how many other laptops which we think have had a second life actually have bigger stories to tell than that.

If you know of any TechResort furbished laptops that are still being used – please let us know, we’d love to hear more laptop journeys!

Also if you have phones or laptops you think could help someone else, or could donate a few quid to buy a bag or a replacement hard drive then please get in touch!