A PORTHMADOG road haulage expert has raised over £30,000 for a number of charities with the help of a Wales rugby star.

Dewi Jones from OJ Jones and Son Haulage Contractors organised the recent event with help from Leigh Halfpenny to raise funds for Breast Cancer Wales, Morriston Hospital in Swansea and the Parkinson’s Disease Society.

Mr Jones, who has been friends with the Halfpenny family for a number of years, said the Wales fullback jumped at the chance to help with the fundraiser.

He said: “I’ve known Leigh’s family for some time now and I approached him to see if he would be keen to help me with a fundraiser as I know he is dedicated to several charities in Wales and would be always willing to help with fundraising.

“I was also keen to get him on board as he is so well thought of up here and a lot of fundraising is done by the Welsh players in south Wales so I thought it would be a great idea to get him up to the north and get involved in the event.

“He was extremely keen and was more than happy to come up to north Wales and spend the weekend visiting Porthmadog for the first time where I took him out in Tremadog and he also visited our yard - which he thoroughly enjoyed!

“The causes we were raising funds for were close to both of our hearts, I lost my mum to cancer and Leigh had recently gone through the pain of a family member who was diagnosed with cancer so we were both keen to raise as much funds as we could for Breast Cancer Wales and the other selected charities which were nominated by Leigh and his family.”

The fundraiser was held in Kinmel Manor in Abergele on 21 November which saw over 300 people attend.

Mr Hughes added: “The fundraising event was just fantastic; so many people came out to support it which was great.

“We had such fantastic donations, which included a number of hospitality tickets to rugby games.

“Over £30,000 was raised which was unbelievable. I’d like to thank everyone who attended and for the generous donations which were used to raise that amount of money, a lot was donated locally from the Porthmadog area and helped us reach this amazing amount – people gave so generously to the event.

“The support was amazing and it’s fantastic we can give something back to these organisations and charity groups that do so much to people who are going through such difficult times in their lives.”