ABOUT 200 runners turned out at a National Trust site near Bury St Edmunds yesterday in support of the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The charity hopes to raise about £2,000 to go towards research from its first 10k race at Ickworth.

The race took runners through parkland and woodland around Ickworth House.

Participant Hayley Oliver, 41, from near Chelmsford, said: “I did a race for the British Heart Foundation about two years ago. It’s a charity that’s close to my heart because my cousin died from a heart condition in 2004.”

While Mrs Oliver was not raising sponsorship for the Ickworth race, she said she donated more than £500 to the charity last time.

“I think they are a really good charity and definitely worth supporting,” she said.

Alex Mayer, fundraising manager for East Anglia at the BHF, said she was pleased with the turnout for the inaugural race at Ickworth.

She said money raised from people’s sponsorship would support the charity’s Mending Broken Hearts Appeal which is funding research into repairing heart muscles.

While more are surviving heart attacks, increasing numbers are then left with badly damaged hearts and heart failure.

Ms Mayer said: “We cannot repair heart muscles and this is a big research programme going on at the moment and all the money is spent trying to find a way to repair heart muscles.”

She added the charity also spends money on things like defibrillators and heart nurses, adding a lot is spent at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on research and funding scientists.

For more information on the charity visit www.bhf.org.uk