A SHEEP farmer has sheared more than 700 lambs in just nine hours in aid of an eight-year-old girl who suffers multiple seizures a day due to severe epilepsy.

Geraint Jones, of Melin Byrhedyn farm, Barhedyn, Machynlleth, raised £11,500 following the herculean effort in August, which will go towards continuing care for Derwenlas schoolgirl Seren Hughes, who has lived with ‘complex uncontrolled epilepsy’ since she was just one day old.

The money will also be shared with the Wales Air Ambulance and Cancer Research Wales.

Seren’s parents Ruth and Hefin, formerly of Cwmystwyth, are close to Geraint and his family, with Hefin helping out on the farm regularly.

Ruth told the Cambrian News this week: “We would like to thank Geraint and [his wife] Laura for all their hard work and amazing achievement, and to the whole Jones family for all their hard work, kindness and thoughtfulness towards us as a family.

“We would like to thank the whole farming community that helped behind the scenes on the days leading up to and including the day of the event.

“Thanks to everyone who supported with generous donations, auction prizes and for making the auction such a great success.”

Wales Air Ambulance helped Geraint’s friend and fellow farmer Rhys Lewis, who was left paralysed after a tree felling accident in 2014, and his grandmother who broke her hip and had to be airlifted to hospital.

And Geraint wanted to raise money for Cancer Research Wales after his mother, Audrey Jones, suffered from lymphoma, a form of cancer.

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online now