Staff and locals at a Totton pub are hoping to raise £5,000 through a series of fundraisers for a charity close to the heart of their general manager. 

The Elephant & Castle, in Commercial Road, has named cardiac charity Heartbeat as their Charity of the Year. 

It’s a cause especially close to Lorna Perkins, after she lost her mother to heart failure in November.

She said: “When we started to talk about a chosen charity, Heartbeat came to mind as so many of us here at the pub have known someone or have had a relative that has had a heart related problem.”

READ MORE: Southampton to host first public Diwali Mela festival

Lorna and her team have thrown themselves into fundraising and raising awareness for Heartbeat. The pub hosts various events, including a Jenga League, comedy evenings and race nights.

She added: “It’s about raising awareness. We’re all huge supporters of Heartbeat. We have a dedicated stand where we share information about Heartbeat’s latest projects.”

Their hope is that by sharing this knowledge, the pub’s patrons might be inspired to follow Heartbeat on social media and engage with posts which all helps raise awareness to the cause.

The funds raised from the Elephant & Castle will be going specifically to another of Heartbeat’s funded projects - the innovative 3D Heart campaign, which is revolutionising the approach of surgeons to invasive cardiac diagnostic testing.

Costing £600 per heart, surgeons can utilise specialist cardiac modelling software to easily scan the patient’s heart using non-invasive methods such as a CT scan or an MRI. This creates a detailed blueprint of the heart, which can then be sent to a 3D printer. The printer will produce an identical plastic model of the heart, offering an in-depth look at the organ and any defects it may have.

Southampton based Heartbeat is a well-established charity that helps newborns, children and adults diagnosed with congenital and cardiovascular diseases through supporting the work of the Wessex Cardiac Unit based at University Hospital Southampton. Heartbeat fundraise to provide specialised equipment, services and facilities to help patients and their relatives through their cardiac journey.

It also offers families who have patients undergoing treatment at the University Hospital Southampton somewhere to stay in the 25-bedroom Rotary Heartbeat House.