A youngster from Penryn walked 8.7 miles and has raised at least £600 for a school in Honduras where her cousins are pupils.

Aracely Cortez was joined by her parents, Kate and Adonis, and other family members when she embarked on her trek, which took her from King Charles School in Falmouth, where she is a pupil, to Mylor.

The eight-year-old was wanting to raise enough money to repair the school fence in El Pital, where her dad is from. Her mum Kate said: “The fence protects the children from the road on one side and the river on the other. At the moment it is all broken and the children cannot go out to play and the small children are in danger from the cars on the road.”

She chose the eight mile route because that is the distance from the school in Honduras to the shop in the city where they can buy the materials needed to mend the fence.

Aracely, who has a little sister Inez, aged two, had originally set herself a target of £130, but she has already exceeded that so is planning to help the school and neighbouring preschool in other ways, including paying for mosquito wire to be put over the windows and for other repairs.

The Cortez family are no strangers to the village, having visited on many occasions, but Kate admits: “Sometimes it does seem so far away, so to be able to make such a difference to so many children is just great.

“It all began when one of Aracely’s cousins |posted a picture on Facebook showing a pig walking through the playground. She saw that and she thought maybe she could do something so we came up with the idea of the walk.

“Through my Facebook page she posted |messages and pictures to promote it and designed the sponsor form, although now she is slightly embarrassed by all the attention. She is not used to people she doesn’t know coming up and talking to her.”

The family, who live in Broad Street, are hoping to return to Honduras next year. “For me, as a |parent, I think it’s very important that Aracely understands how other children in the world live, how little some of them have and that she can help to do something about it.”