Woman spends 24 hours on tiny island to raise cash

Spending 24 hours in fierce wind and rain on a small uninhabited island may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but that's exactly what one woman has done to help raise £100,000.

Di Mills, 65, spent an entire day and night camped on a tiny 1.5 acre inlet off the coast of Amlwch on Anglesey, in a bid to help her community buy and renovate a boat house to keep it out of the hands of property developers.

While the rocky island of East Mouse - also known as Ynys Amlwch - lies just a few hundred metres away from the village of Bull Bay it lacks any infrastructure, grass nor plants.

After spending Tuesday night camped on the island, Ms Mills made it safely back to her own village of Rhosybol on Anglesey.

But having spent 24 hours with only seabirds for company, she described the experience as "scary at times".

Ms Mills, who works as a yoga teacher as well as a school bus driver, added that the experience was an "eye opener".

"The weather was not great and it was really rough going out, my husband took me out on a Jet Ski and we had rowers bringing my stuff behind," she said.

"The sea was very choppy and as I embarked on the island I did the splits and fell in, so that wasn't the best of starts. It was a typical Bridget Jones entry onto the rock.

"I tried to get dried but there's only one flat bit on the rock where you can sit, its like slices all over the islet, there's nowhere comfortable to sit."

But that wasn't all that Ms Mills had to contend with, resulting in a less than comfortable night's sleep.

"The island is actually covered in poo, the smell was unbelievable," she said.

"I had a very rough night as it was windy and raining.

"There's no room for a tent or to peg anything down so all I had was an umbrella.

"But the night sky was a carpet of stars, it was beautiful.

"There were lots of seagulls, egrets, black tipped seagulls and loads of cormorants."

The aim of her endeavour was to raise awareness and funds towards a local effort to buy the former Bull Bay boat house for the benefit of the local community.

"We need to raise £100,000 to buy back the boat house, which is one of the few original lifeboat stations on the island," she added.

"We want ensure its used for its intended purpose rather than being snapped up by a property developer to use maybe once a year."

But would she do something this this again?

"Since coming back I've been overwhelmed by the support," she said.

"I'm happy that I achieved it but if someone offered me £10,000 to do another night, I wouldn't do it."