The woman with a big heart: Eileen's half a century of charity and community work

Eileen Jones was a young mother-of-three when she helped to set up a Bryncrug branch of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in 1973. More than 50 years later, she's still working tirelessly for the charity and has raised tens of thousands of pounds from events such as coffee mornings, skittles evenings and car boot sales.

"I'm not sure of the total figure, but I do know that since 2015 alone we've raised more than £60,000 - which is pretty good for a small community in Wales," she says.

Earlier this year, Eileen's dedication was recognised with a second BHF gong (the first was from BHF Cymru a few years ago) at a ceremony in London, where she was presented with a Community Fundraising Volunteer - 2025 Finalist award. 

"Out of 1,200 nominees, only 18 volunteers were given awards - and I was the only one from Wales," she says proudly.

One might imagine that fundraising consistently for one charity would be enough, but no! Eileen was also involved for several years with another national charity, the British Red Cross, and was instrumental in opening Tywyn's British Red Cross shop in the 1990s. Today she also helps to raise money for children's hospices Tŷ Gobaith and Hope House.

Her willingness to say "yes" to requests for help means that at the age of nearly 81, Eileen is not only still busy with charitable and community work - she's been a Tywyn town councillor for nearly ten years and is a former mayor - but she also helps to care for her next-door neighbour, who is unwell, and her husband of almost 60 years, Gwyndaf, who suffers with heart problems. 

Although Eileen spent the early years of her marriage in Bryncrug and has lived in Tywyn for the past decade, she was born and has spent most of her life in Abertrinant - where she managed to marry the boy next door in a hamlet so small there were hardly any neighbours!

"Until I was eight, my parents and I lived in two different isolated properties a little way from the hamlet, so when we moved into Abertrinant, into the middle of a row of three farm workers' cottages, I remember my mam saying, 'you'll have to behave now; we have neighbours'!"

The former chapel and cottages in Abertrinant

Eileen's father, Thomas Thomas, known as Tom y Bugail, was a shepherd for Perfeddnant Farm in the Dysynni Valley, tending to his flocks on horseback. Her mother, Mary - whom people knew as May - was a fount of local knowledge and well-known in the area. 

Eileen grew up bilingual in Welsh and English, "because my mother was from Caersws, where they speak English, and my father was from Staylittle, where the first language is Welsh - so I used to talk to my mam in English and my dad in Welsh. But my Welsh has always been very important to me; I use it every moment that I can."

The nearest school to Abertrinant was nearly four miles away in Bryncrug, and Eileen would "think nothing" of walking the mile or so down the narrow, winding lane from home each morning to the bus-stop on the main road. "We didn't have a car, so we'd go shopping once a week."

After she and Gwyndaf married, they spent six months in Dolgellau before being allocated a council house in Maeshyfryd, Bryncrug, where they lived for seven years and where their daughters and son were born. "After growing up in Abertrinant, it was a bit of a shock going to live on an estate," Eileen recalls with a smile. "But it was nice for the children, because they had the experience of having people around them, which I didn't really have a child."

Nevertheless, in 1972 the family moved back to Abertrinant, converting two of the three cottages into one property for them to live in, with her parents next door. It was here that Eileen met fellow young mum Barbara Jones, who was involved with the Tywyn branch of the BHF. "She came round one evening and said that we ought to start a branch in Bryncrug. I knew nothing about the charity at the time, but I was happy to do it. I remember we held the first event, as coffee evening, in October 1973, which raised £90 - a lot of money in those days."

Inspired by Bryncrug's efforts, branches were also set up in Llwyngwril, Llanegryn, Abergynolwyn and Aberdyfi, before all eventually merged with the Tywyn and Aberdfyi Branch, of which Eileen has been Chair for the last 15 years.

As well as fundraising, Eileen was bringing up her children and working for a builder's yard in Tywyn, but before long she'd also taken on the job of clerk to no fewer than three community councils - Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, Bryncrug and Llanegryn - which she did for between 12 and 35 years.

"A lot of Bryncrug's work is looking after Dolgoch Falls, and when I first became clerk it was about getting grants. We managed to get £53,000 of funding for pathways and the first bridges. Dolgoch is very close to my heart."

When Abertrinant's Methodist chapel, adjoining the cottages, went on sale in 1989, Eileen and Gwyndaf bought it and turned it into a workshop. Eileen's mother cultivated the end of the cemetery as a kitchen and flower garden.

"Gwyn's dream was to convert the former chapel into a retirement home for us, but the planners wouldn't allow it: they wanted it for tourism. It's ironic really because now they're killing tourism!"

However, Eileen and Gwyndaf did go ahead with the conversion - with Gwyndaf doing much of the work himself - before selling it as a holiday rental cottage, which it remains today. 

"I looked after my mam for the last seven years of her life. After she died in 2012, we stayed on in Abertrinant for a while and then decided to move into Tywyn." Her great friend Sue Wolfe now lives in her childhood home.

Eileen, who now has nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild, has cut down on her community and fundraising commitments, but is still actively involved in a variety of projects. Four years ago, she helped to set up Ffrij Tywyn, aimed at reducing food waste, and recently relaunched Tywyn's Older People's Forum.

So, what is it that drives her to do so much for the community? "I like helping," she says simply. "It just gives es me happiness to help out. And what stands out for me is people's kindness. If you knew some of the lovely stuff that's been donated for BHF to sell, you'd be amazed."

And what is it about the BHF that has kept her fundraising for the charity for more than half a century?

"Well, we've all got a heart, haven't we," smiles Eileen. "What really brought home to me the importance of our fundraising was when I went up to Manchester to see some of the research that's being done into heart and circulatory diseases. It was all a bit over my head, but it felt very worthwhile when someone said to me, 'thank you; you're paying for my research'." 

In London to collect her BHF volunteer award

Being presented with her BHF award

On Skomer with great friend Sue Wolfe, who now lives in her childhood home

At Pontcysyllte Aqueduct with daughter-in-law Jessica

Mayor of Tywyn in 2022. With Gwynedd county councillor Beth Lawton

* All photos apart from the first and last image courtesy of Sue Wolfe. Thanks also to Sue for some additional details.