Big hearted residents and staff at a care organisation have raised a treasure chest full of cash to combat the famine in East Africa.

Among the fundraisers at Pendine Park in Wrexham was care practitioner Evelyn Dimatulac Flaviano, 40, who was deeply touched by the plight of the 2.9 million people facing starvation.

Evelyn, a mum of two boys Jan-Jan, 13, and Jamie, eight, ran 30 laps around Pendine Park’s Summerhill Road site, a total of more than 10 miles, before tackling the Liverpool half-marathon the following day.

She raised more than £250 for UNICEF’s East Africa Appeal and the total from Pendine Park has reached £1,000 after a host of other events including a sponsored silence and a bric-a-brac sale.

Evelyn, who works at the Bodlondeb care home, said: “I did the 30 laps of Pendine Park in 1hr 24mins.

“The next day I did the Liverpool half-marathon and that took me 2hrs 14mins, but I was pretty tired from the day before.

“I did the Madrid half-marathon in April in 1hr 58mins so I can do it much faster.

“I love running and I’m doing some other runs later this year for Cancer Research. I started running when I was very young.

“I just wanted to help with the East Africa Appeal. I think it’s terrible and gets forgotten a little bit.

“Everyone at Pendine Park has got behind the appeal and there has been lots going on. I know we have raised more than £1,000 now with money still being collected.

“We won’t know the final total for a while until we have collected all the sponsorship money.”

Evelyn moved to Wrexham in October 2016 from Spain where she and her family had lived for the previous 17 years.

She said: “My husband, Juanito Gregorio, who is an electrician, and I wanted our boys to learn English and have the opportunity to live in the UK. We love it and they are doing really well.

“I started work at Pendine Park as a care practitioner in December last year. I love my job, there are many challenges but I enjoy it and I work with some really nice people. We are a great team.”

She added: “I like working with our residents and seeing them happy. There is always something going on and they have plenty to do. No one sits around just watching TV and that is so important.”

Bodlondeb manager Ann Chapman says Evelyn and the staff of all Pendine Park care homes really got behind the East Africa Appeal.

She said: “We have had so much going on and I’m delighted that Evelyn did her sponsored run around the Summerhill site. To raise £250 through her own efforts is amazing.

“We have had lots of fundraising schemes going on with all the money raised going to the East Africa Famine Appeal. They are facing a real catastrophe in Africa right now and people are dying when there really is no need.

“There has been conflict in Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia and with food scarce and crippling poverty it means children are suffering malnutrition on an epidemic scale. We all just wanted to do our bit after seeing the TV reports.”