A Scottish lingerie brand rejected by the judges on television show Dragons’ Den has raised £200,000 from a retail investor who was moved by the founder’s presentation.

LoveRose Lingerie was developed by Caroline Kennedy Alexander specifically for women recovering from breast cancer surgery.

Ms Alexander told the TV judges earlier this year how she created the range while she was recovering from a double mastectomy and reconstruction.

LoveRose is named in memory of her sister, Rose, one of two of her sisters to have died from cancer. Ms Alexander is one of six sisters, four of whom have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The company raised an initial £15,000 during a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to help get the business off the ground and won a further funding boost at the Scottish EDGE Awards 2018.

The latest investment from a private investor who wishes to remain anonymous is part of a £300,000 funding round and will help accelerate the brand’s growth, through developing brand awareness and expanding the product line offering, which will include a new Essentials line due to be launched later this year.

LoveRose is also expanding its portfolio of business mentors and advisers to work on elevating the brand.  Current advisers include Christian Maher, a former director of lingerie brand La Perla, and Yvonne Webb, a former national account manager at chocolate maker Cadbury.  Work is already under way to collaborate with relevant UK charities and organisations supporting cancer patients through their recovery.

Ms Alexander said: “It’s fantastic news to have successfully closed a round of £300,000 investment – including this £200,000 commitment from our latest private investor.

“I am enormously excited about the potential for the LoveRose brand, which is about so much more than just bras – we put the emotional and psychological needs of our clients first. This is a market that’s shockingly under-served and so we’re helping to fill a massive and pressing unmet need.”

The innovative LoveRose collection includes pocketed bras for women who wear prosthesis and hidden support hammocks to negate the need for damaging underwires, while providing full support for the breasts or prosthesis.

One in seven women in the UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime and it is the most common cancer in the UK.  Survival rates have doubled in the last 40 years, with more than 500,000 women currently living well after treatment.