LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- The last living survivor of the Titanic earned only a small fraction of what auctioneers hoped to raise when she sold her final remaining mementos of the doomed ship to pay nursing home bills . Millvina Dean , 97 , was trying to raise money so she can stay in the nursing home she prefers . The 17 items belonging to 97-year-old Millvina Dean sold for about $ 8,000 on Saturday , according to auctioneer Alan Aldridge -- not enough to pay for two months at her nursing home . Aldridge had earlier speculated the sale could raise up to $ 50,000 for her . But the bidder who bought the Dean item with the closest connection to the doomed voyage returned it to her after the sale , Aldridge said . `` A young man bought the canvas bag for £1,500 ( $ 2,200 ) and donated it back to Millvina , '' Aldridge said . He did not reveal the buyer 's identity . The canvas bag might have been used to lift the infant Dean from a lifeboat to a rescue ship , Aldridge said . `` Historical documents say she was lifted from the lifeboat onto Carpathia , the rescue ship , in a mail sack , '' Aldridge said . After her rescue , Dean , her mother and brother returned to England with a canvas sack , among other possessions . `` There is speculation that this would have been the bag . It 's a leather and canvas bag . You would easily get a child or infant in it , '' Aldridge said , though he added that research by the Smithsonian , the British Postal Museum and the Liverpool Maritime Museum showed no proof that Dean had been taken off the lifeboat in that particular bag . It was the second auction in less than a year at Henry Aldridge & Son for Dean , who was a 9-week-old baby when the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 . Aldridge said before the sale he was eager to raise as much for Dean as possible . `` She 's in a residential nursing home . She 's 97 years of age . She 's paying £3,000 a month in nursing home fees , '' he said . `` As she said , £3,000 a month is £36,000 a year , which is a lot of money , '' he said . `` When she runs out of money , the state will pay fees for her , but while she can pay her fees , she decides where she gets her care . When the state pays , they decide . '' Dean 's previous sale , in October , raised just over £30,000 , Aldridge said . `` It 's made a lot of people aware of her plight , a lot of people have sent her funds , '' he said . Dean never married and had no children . `` There are cousins but there is no one directly to support her , '' Aldridge said . `` The property she lived in ( before she moved to the nursing home ) was not hers . She 's just an ordinary little old lady . `` If she 's lucky , she 'll get another four or five years , she 's quite a fit lady , '' he said . Dean was not available to speak to CNN herself because of a throat infection , Aldridge said . The auction included 17 items from her collection -- most of them memorabilia related to the Titanic and signed by her , but not from the ship itself . The auction , in Devizes , southwest England , also included letters from the estate of Titanic survivor Barbara Dainton-West which fetched more than $ 36,000 . One letter sold for about $ 21,800 , while two others went for about $ 5,800 and just over $ 10,000 , Aldridge said . The letters include descriptions of her family 's trip to board the Titanic and the immediate aftermath of the sinking . Dainton-West , who was 10 months old when the ship went down , died in October 2007 , the auctioneer said .
Last cargo of Titanic - fraction of what auctioneers hoped to raise . Auction aimed at the nursing home bills of year - old Millvina Smith . She was two weeks old when Titanic sank in 1912 . The 17 paintings sold for about $ 8,000 , instead of $ 50,000 initially hoped for .