A LOCAL girl, Emily Petch, has raised more than £850 for Shaldon Wildlife Trust by running the Teignmouth Parkrun every week for nine weeks. Her runs totalled a distance of almost 28 miles.

Aged nine-and-a-half, Emily knew that she wanted to raise money for the zoo to help build new enclosures and feed the hungry mouths of Shaldon’s 250-plus animals, many of which are endangered.

Come rain or shine, Emily was out every Saturday running 3.1 miles.

When asked why she wanted to raise money for Shaldon Wildlife Trust, Emily said: ‘I really wanted to raise some money for Shaldon Zoo because I love it, it’s my favourite place and I love the animals.

‘I wanted to raise money to help feed the animals and to help them have the life they would have had in the wild.

‘Sometimes I liked doing the park runs because I like running but sometimes it was hard because I was so tired.’

Zak Showell, director of Shaldon Wildlife Trust, said ‘It’s just incredible that a young local person off her own back would want to raise funds for the zoo.

‘As a small charity fundraising is so important to us and we’re so glad Emily managed to raise so much.’

Emily and her family recently visited the zoo in Shaldon to hand over the fundraising money last week.

While they were there, Emily and her family was treated to helping feed the ring-tailed lemurs as a small thank you for her incredible fundraising effort.