Fundraisers at the Greyhound pub in Ixworth raise £4,515 to help purchase recliner chairs for the West Suffolk Hospital

Fantastic fundraisers at the Greyhound pub, in Ixworth, have raised a staggering £4,515 through a variety of events to help purchase recliner chairs for the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds.

From quizzes to crib nights and a 100-mile bike ride to a golf day it’s meant that the money has been used to purchase the chairs on Ward F14. This will mean the family members of patients will be able to have somewhere to sleep if they do not wish to leave their loved ones side, as well as more comfortable seating for patients should they want to get out of bed.

The pub, in the High Street, decided to raise money for the My WiSH Charity, which supports the hospital and landlord Colin Pearce said customers had “dug deep” to help boost the funds.

It has come from a series of charity quiz nights run by quizmaster Ray Coleman and his wife Glynis which netted over £1,500.

And 60-year-old Colin, who lost a leg four years ago, carried out a six-and-a-half hour sponsored 100-mile bike ride last September which also helped to boost the funds even further raising £2,000.

His route took him on a big loop from the pub out to Bury, then on towards the Fens and onto Haddenham, in Cambridgeshire, and back through Littleport and Mildenhall and returned to the Greyhound.

The previous month, in August, there was a Belters and Boozers Charity Golf Day, held at All Saints, at Fornham St Martin, attended by 30 people.

“It was well attended and we come back to the pub to have a few things to eat and drink along with a raffle,” he said.

Further money was also raised from the regular Grease Guzzlers’ Monday Night Crib League with two anonymous donations helping to boost the money collected to over £4,500.

He has first hand experience of the treatment and care received by patients at the hospital and said that after he lost his leg he used the physio department at the hospital and his wife, who suffered breast cancer but now has the all clear, was also treated at the hospital.

“People are just so generous and we have a good crowd of customers and everybody gets behind us and they dug deep,” he added.

Pictured above at the Greyhound in Ixworth handing over a cheque for £4,515 to the My WiSH charity is, from left to right, Glynis Coleman, Amy Hatch, My WiSH fundraising officer; Sue Smith, My WiSH fundraising manager; landlord Colin Pearce; and quizmaster Ray Coleman.