A WOMAN who auctioned off her friends and family for a date with bidders has raised over £1,000 for a local cause.

Jennifer Bennett, of Flint talked her nearest and dearest into putting themselves up for a charity auction where the winning bids were donated to a go fund me page for Jenson Edwards, age five, of Buckley.

Jenson's parents Hannah Grindley and Craig Edwards were devastated when their then three-year-old son was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Duchenne is a muscle-wasting condition which would inevitably render Jenson unable to walk and to which there currently is no known cure.

Craig said: "We as parents cannot describe the heart ache and pain this has brought upon us. We don't think we will ever be able to fully come to terms with it but we hope we will learn to cope with it better.

"We have had to grieve for the life we once had for Jenson but now live in hope. Hope that one day they find a cure to this awful condition."

The parents have been working tirelessly to raise money for MD UK to find a cure for the condition, and have also been fundraising for 'Jenson's Fund' to help Jenson make memories.

Craig said: "It will also help towards special equipment he is going to need in the near future. In a nutshell, everything raised for Jenson's Fund will be spent on making Jenson's life that little bit easier and more enjoyable through this tough battle he has to fight."

Jennifer, a friend of the family, said she knew she had to do something.

The hairdresser, who owns Hair By Jennifer salon in Flint, said she is used to fundraising for charity and wanted to help the "humble" Craig and Hannah.

She said: "I was lying in bed thinking 'what can I do to kick start the fundraising?' So I thought I will auction my mum off to the highest bidder and she will get a date out of it as well, she's mad as a box of frogs.

"Then I thought about getting more people involved and in the end we had five blokes and six girls being auctioned.

"There was a couple of them that were not very confident and I probably put a wee bit of pressure on them. But when you say it's for charity everyone wants to get on board.

"I told them it wasn't serious and that it was for a bit of fun - not that they'd meet the love of their life."

Jennifer organised the auction, which was done solely through her large network on Facebook, where hopefuls bid for the 11 men and women in the 'comments' section.

A staggering £1,100 was raised in one night on Saturday- and Jennifer was "shocked" to discover she secured the highest bid.

She said: "It's shocking that someone spent £500 on me. I don't know him properly - we've chatted a couple of times - but he is very generous.

"He also bid another £100 on my friend Samantha Jones, of Flint, so all together he has donated £600 to Jenson's Fund. I think his intention was just to bid them up and up to get other people to bid higher."

Jennifer stipulated each woman is accompanied by a friend on the date with the highest bidder.

She said: "We haven't arranged a date yet, but myself, Samantha and the winning bidder will all go on a date together. I'm not nervous to be honest, I'm a hairdresser so I can chat to anyone for hours, and so is Samantha."

Jennifer said Craig was "lovely and grateful" for her efforts and begged her not to "take time out of her day" for the cause.

She replied: "He gets so overwhelmed when someone does something for Jenson's Fund. I've had a right giggle doing this. I said to him, 'listen, I might be a little fish but I can make a big splash.' And I have."