A five-year-old girl who loves animals has already raised over £700 before she has even started her sponsored litter picking for her beloved Chester Zoo.

Josie Hughes, (5), will be doing a sponsored litter pick for Chester Zoo because she wants to help save the zoo and their animals.

Josie's mum, Leanne Clarke told Congleton Nub News, that it was following yesterday's announcement that Chester Zoo must remain shut indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic that Josie decided to raise money for one of her favourite places to visit.

Alongside her mum and dad Joe Hughes, Josie will be litter picking every day for a week starting on Saturday (6 June) wearing gloves and with her parent's supervision, the trio will visit seven different local places and fill a bin bags worth of rubbish each day.

After launching the JustGiving page yesterday (Wednesday), Josie set herself a target of raising £100, but at the time of writing this article she has already raised £723.

The places the family will be visiting are – Bathpool, Astbury Mere Country Park, Mow Cop Castle, a stretch of the canal in Rode Heath and Kidsgrove, Clough Hall Park and the surrounding area and Congleton Park.

Miss Clarke, who used to live in Congleton before moving to Kidsgrove three years ago, told Nub News: "After reading the latest announcement yesterday morning it made us so sad to think that there is a possibility of the zoo not being there anymore.

"Josie is the biggest animal lover and wanted to help so we had a little think of something that was achievable for her and came up with the sponsored litter picking as litter is also a problem in local beauty spots at the moment. It seemed a great idea.

"Josie cannot wait to get started on Saturday and we as a family are blown away by the amount of generous donations she has received, it's been amazing and shows how much love there is for Chester Zoo."

Chester Zoo announced yesterday that they were heading towards debt in excess of £24m by the end of 2020 – which would "financially cripple" them. They need to raise £1.6m each month to keep going.

You can donate to 'Josies sponsored litter picking for Chester Zoo' here.