Quizzers at a west Suffolk pub helped to propel fundraising for the Every Heart Matters appeal towards its £500,00 target by raising over £2,000.

Over the past year more than 20 quiz events were held at the Bear, at Beyton, with each person entering paying £1.50.

The pub also added to the total with a series of other events including a Grand National Sweepstake, an Easter Egg draw and a World Cup Sweepstake along with draw tickets for 10 specially created and individualistic hampers made up of goods from suppliers.

It has resulted in a total of £2,211.50 being raised with the money presented to the My WiSH Charity, which has been behind the campaign for the new heart unit at the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds.

Hannah Clark, joint owner of the Bear, said: “We chose My WiSH and the Every Heart Matters appeal as it was very close to our hearts and all the proceeds from the quiz go to the charity.

“We were hoping to raise £1,500 but we thought it would be nice to get over £2,000 so we organised the draw with hampers created from goods from our various supplies plus change left in tins on the bar.

“Two of our friends had hearts attacks and we just thought that heart disease can happen to anyone. It can strike anybody and then you have to go out of the county to obtain care and rehabilitation which seems ludicrous to us.

“There’s so many local people who are now going to benefit from state-of-the-art care.”

Sally Daniels, appeal manager for My WiSH, collected a giant cheque from the pub and said: “The Bear regulars have been fantastic to raise so much money for us with their regular quiz sessions and the fact that they boosted it ever further with other events just goes to show how much effort Hannah and her customers have put into raising money for the appeal.”

The appeal reached its target in December which has enabled the hospital to create a specialist heart diagnosis unit and bring the heart department together on one floor.

The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust invested £5.2m in developing the state-of-the-art cardiac suite that provides quicker access to more treatments for the local community and the appeal was aimed at supporting a fully integrated cardiac centre that will enhance the treatment of cardiac patients.

It will allow diagnostic tests, checks and follow up to happen all in one place and means that patients will not need to visit other departments or repeatedly dress and undress for tests and scans.