By Chris Hardy and Gary Cooper

The Angus community has pledged help for the family of Lithuanian Jolanta Bledaite.

A fund is to be opened by Brechin councillors Ruth Leslie Melville and Bob Myles while local champion of migrant workers Sue Smith, of Arbroath, has also pledged to do all she can to help.

Jolanta (35) was working in Scotland so she could send cash home to pay medical bills for her father Sarunas, who is receiving treatment for cancer.

“An account will be set up with the Bank of Scotland on Monday (today) and we will publish details so people can make a donation,” said Mrs Leslie Melville.

There was a minute’s silence in memory of Jolanta at the start of Brechin’s home game against Airdrie and a collection taken among supporters, players and management raised £500.

“That means that in the first day of the collection, before it is even advertised, the sum donated totalled £800,” said Mrs Leslie Melville.

Councillor Myles said, “There is spontaneous support coming from the community, just as you’d expect.”

Jolanta’s father Sarunas Bleda, who lives in a tiny flat in Alytus, said his daughter longed to return to Lithuania.

“She endured a lot to look after me and her grandmother who is also ill.

“She was unhappy to be away from home but it was the best way to get money.”

Mr Bleda, who divorced Jolanta’s mother 15 years ago, said he was devastated when police called on Thursday and asked him to identify his daughter.

“She went abroad, first to Ireland and then to Scotland, to earn for all of us.

“She said Britain was a better place for her to earn money and very safe —and now this. I never imagined I would hear such terrible news.

“I am too ill to leave Lithuania. Her grandmother is bedridden and we haven’t spoken to her sister Daiva in Moscow for years.”

It is the third time in recent years Sue Smith has responded to help relatives of workers who arrived in Angus seeking a better life and failed to return home.

Sue had a tear-filled weekend phone conversation with Jolanta’s family in Lithuania as she offered every assistance.

The offer comes exactly a year after Petr Adamik (28), of the Czech Republic, died following a caravan blaze near Arbroath.

Sue helped organise his Angus funeral and took his remains to his family.

That came two years after she started a massive campaign after the murder of Czech worker Marek Smrz (21) in Arbroath.

It enabled members of the fruit picker’s family to travel to Scotland to take his body home and pay for a lasting memorial.

“I have spoken to Jolanta’s family and have assured her father we will do all we can over here for them,” she said.

“If he wants her back for a funeral in Lithuania, that is what we will do, or if he wants the funeral here and for us to take her home that can also be done.

“The man is devastated at what has happened to his daughter. He said he couldn’t believe she was thrown away like rubbish.”

The charity worker used her grasp of Polish, which she has learned helping foreign workers, to talk to Jolanta’s relatives by phone.

Sue was on holiday in France when calls started flooding in from foreign workers who said she was the only one they could trust to help Jolanta’s family.

Anyone keen to help can contact the Marek Appeal at PO Box 15, Arbroath, DD11 1AA.

Sue said anyone wishing to can send letters or condolence cards to the address and she will deliver them in person.

“I know Marek’s family took a lot of comfort from the fact people took time to send cards,” she added.