Current double Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold will visit Bury St Edmunds next month to raise money for a sporting charity.

The 2018 Bury St Edmunds Sporting Lunch, which will raise money for SportsAid, will take place at The Athenaeum in the town on Friday, October 19.

Yarnold has won every major title in the skeleton and entered the history books earlier this year when she became the first ever Team GB winter athlete to retain an Olympic title after winning gold at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

She said: “I’m really excited to be coming to Bury St Edmunds to help raise funding for SportsAid.

“As someone who benefited from SportsAid’s support as a young athlete I know how vital their work is.”

The event is being sponsored by Abbeycroft Leisure, Lovewell Blake and Greene & Greene Solicitors and will be the curtain raiser for the Our Bury St Edmunds Festival of Sport.

Mark Daly, of Greene & Greene Solicitors, said “To have somebody who has achieved so much and is so current is a huge coup for both the sporting lunch and for the Festival of Sport. It promises to be an event to remember.”

Warren Smyth, of Abbeycroft Leisure, said: “SportsAid does a really important job raising funding to support local up and coming young sportsmen and women with the cost of training and competing at national and international level.

“As a local company, doing our bit to support the local community and help young people is really important to us.”

Brian Floringer, of Lovewell Blake, said: “I would urge local businesses and individuals to support this event.

“Not only will they get a unique opportunity to entertain clients and staff, they will also be making a meaningful difference to the sporting lives of young people from Suffolk.

“Every penny raised in Suffolk stays in Suffolk to support young athletes from the county.”

Since it was launched in 2007, SportsAid has raised and distributed nearly £200,000 to young athletes from Suffolk, including some that have gone on to win Olympic, Paralympic, World, European and Commonwealth medals.

Further details, and a booking form, are available from SportsAid Eastern trustee Adam Baker at adam.baker@suffolk.gov.uk or 07894 598296.

Tickets cost £40 per head or £280 for a table of 8.