A LOCAL pensioner found an innovative way to celebrate her 90th birthday last month and raise money for charity.

Morwen Evans, a former teacher at Helvetia House School, organised a special quiz which was sent out to people across the Island. Those who took on the challenge paid £2 and the money was given to charity.

She also asked her friends to make a donation to charity rather than buy her presents and raised a total of £505 for Jersey-based charity Wasot-UK, which raises awareness of HIV and Aids in the developing world, particularly Kenya.

The quiz, designed by Joan Streets, the activities manager at St Ewolds residential home where Miss Evans lives, comprised 16 cryptic clues.

Miss Evans presented the money she raised to the chairman of Wasot-UK, Ed Le Quesne. He said that Miss Evans’ offer of help for the charity had come as a welcome surprise. ‘It was a brilliant idea. It came quite out of the blue and I think it ended up going all around the Town Hall,’ he said.

Miss Evans said that the idea had developed after she met with a friend and heard about the troubles in Kenya at the beginning of this year. ‘I suddenly found myself in the middle of history and it obviously made a big impression on me as I felt I must do something,’ she said. ‘It just came about with one thing leading to another, as a lot of things in life do.’

The money raised will go towards supporting the charity’s work with the OGRA foundation, which aims to improve health in eight districts of the Nyanza Province in Kenya.

• Picture: Morwen Evans and Ed Le Quesne with a copy of the quiz. Picture by Rob Currie (00601717)