A LONG-STANDING volunteer will be scaling new heights to raise vital cash for the charity she has helped for 28 years.

Margaret Hancox began volunteering for HOST when it was founded in 1987, taking foreign students into her home in Abingdon for a few days or a weekend at a time.

But after her long service Mrs Hancox decided that, because she turned 70 this year, she would climb seven Marilyn hills in the hope of raising £2,000 for the charity.

Marilyns are hills which are at least 500ft on all sides. Mrs Hancox said she was originally going to do seven Munros – mountains more than 3,000ft tall – but could not because of her health.

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She has now completed five of her seven, and has raised £1,500 of her target.

She said: “It has been very nice, we have been doing them quite slowly and have had good weather.”

The charity has around 1,600 volunteers across the country who give foreign students the chance to live with British families and learn about the country they are studying in.

Mrs Hancox said that it is not just the students who learn, but the families as well.

Having taken in students from Africa, North and South American and Asia, Mrs Hancox said that it helps promote international relations.

She added: “You can get to know them as people, not stereotypes off the TV, radio or in the newspapers.

“You realise these are real people with the same worries, ambitions and fears as us.

“Foreign students can be really rather restricted or contained in their institutional ghetto, living with other foreign students and can spend months without actually having a conversation with British people.”

Mrs Hancox is doing the final climb on December 31.

To donate visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com and search for Margaret’s Bagging Marilyns.