A CHIRK woman celebrated her 80th birthday with a group of youngsters after they reached out to check on her.

Pat Jones celebrated her birthday on New Year’s Eve with a picnic alongside her daughter and her new friends after they grew concerned that they hadn’t seen her out walking her dog in a while.

Twins Kayne and Kyler Piercy and their friends befriended Pat in the summer when she was walking her dog in the evening past the skate park where the group would be.

Having not seen her for a while, due to the darker evenings, the lads posted a message on a Chirk Facebook group to check if she was ok and was met with many responses from people who know Pat, including her daughter, Su Titchner.

Su said: “Kayne posted this loving message saying ‘does anyone know if she is alright’ because they hadn’t seen her. I messaged him and we decided to have the picnic because it’s mum’s birthday.

“They didn’t even know her second name and just wanted to make sure that she’s alright.”

Su described what they did as “lovely” and “heart-warming” as the lads didn’t know her well.

She added her mother is popular in the area and a lot of people know her.

“Mum talks to everybody, she always has, and then she used to tell me about it. She’d met these lads and they’d had such a laugh and they were such good lads," she said.

“I messaged Kayne who was the one who put up the original request and said, ‘it’s mum’s birthday on New Year’s Eve how about we have a picnic’. So, mum and I baked, and we went up and we had sausage rolls, birthday cake and chocolate brownies and everyone had a lovely time.

“It’s not like she’s a part of their family or she’s known them for years or anything, it’s just that she chats to people so its such a lovely thing that’s come out of nothing really.

“I’m so proud of my mum and I’m so proud of these lads.”