A FLINTSHIRE primary school pupil is swapping presents for charitable donations for her birthday this year.

Elaina Jones, 8, wants her family and friends to make donations to Macmillan Cancer Support instead of getting her presents on her ninth birthday.

Elaina, from Mold, attends Ysgol Glanrafon in Mold and has her birthday party on November 24.

She has been inspired Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning fundraising event. Each year, people in the UK and worldwide host their own coffee morning, with all proceeds going to the cancer support charity.

She said: ‘’I saw an advert on the telly for the Macmillan cake mornings. I thought it looked like a really nice thing to do so I asked my mum if I could have one for my party, my mum said it was a nice idea but that I obviously couldn’t ask people to pay to come to my birthday party so how else could I raise the money?

‘’So that’s how I thought instead of people buying me birthday presents, I could ask people if they would make a donation to Macmillan instead.’’

Mary Roberts, Elaina’s aunty, added: ‘’We’re all very proud of Elaina for thinking of such a lovely and selfless thing to do at such a young age and hope she has a brilliant party, and so do all of her friends.’’

And Macmillan have extended their thanks to Elaina for her heartwarming gesture.

Eleri Brady, Macmillan’s Fundraising Manager for North Wales, said: ‘’We would like to say a big thank you to Elaina for such a generous gesture of asking for donations to Macmillan instead of birthday presents for her ninth birthday.

‘’Macmillan Cancer Support relies on the generosity of our supporters and Elaina’s kind gesture will help us support to people living with cancer in North Wales including our nurses, our information and support centres and our benefits advisers.’’