TWO catering staff at a college in Rhos-on-Sea are celebrating more than 50 years of volunteering between them.

Sue Hughes and Wendy Mylchreest, who both work for Coleg Llandrillo, have spent their spare time keenly supporting various charitable organisations across Denbighshire and Conwy.

Wendy Mylchreest, storekeeper at the college for over 30 years, was born in Brighton, but moved to Llandudno in 1969. She is a keen member of the Lions Club International (Llandudno branch) and was the ‘first lady Lion of Llandudno’ (2019). She was a Lion for many years before this accolade, and is, in her own words, “still roaring!”

She was voted in as Vice President of the Llandudno branch earlier this year. Keeping it in the family, her husband is currently the President. The President chooses the main charitable causes to support during his/her time in office. This year they are diabetes, guide dogs, food banks and local charities

Since the pandemic, the Lions have been constantly fundraising around Llandudno, mainly supporting local charities and food banks. They have three milk churns placed around the resort where people can donate, or, “chuck it in the churn” as it is fondly known.

Branch members were marshals at the recent, annual Honda Goldwings event in Llandudno and sell raffle tickets for the town’s annual Boxing Day Dip charitable event. They have a Lions’ shop on Madoc Street, where Wendy helps out when not working, and recently bought defibrillators for the Trinity Centre and Llandudno Football Club at a cost of over £1,000 each.

Meanwhile, Luton-born Sue Hughes, who has lived in Rhyl for decades, has been a kitchen technician at the college for over ten years. She has been volunteering with the Rainbows for 34 years within the Rhyl area. Rainbows is the youngest section of Girlguiding in the UK - between the ages of 5 and 7 in England, Scotland and Wales.

Sue and members of the Rhyl group of Rainbows have been supporting several charities in recent years, including Sightsavers, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Royal British Legion.

Sue’s other passion is the church. She is involved in children’s work in the local mission area. This is a partnership initiative involving several churches working together in deprived areas of Rhyl, Towyn, Bodelwyddan and Rhuddlan. For several years, the partnership’s priority was feeding local children during the school holidays. This changed recently, when Marcus Rashford’s campaign was adopted by schools.

Volunteers then changed their priority to providing activities for children during the holidays. Before lockdown, they were going out to children and promoting a range of activities. Since lockdown, they have been supplying the children with large bags, containing activities to accompany various stories, other reading materials and sweets.

Sue and Wendy were keen to stress that they only played a small part as volunteers and that their respective organisations were always looking for volunteers/members.