Wives group at Bury St Edmunds church give £1,000 boost to the My Wish Every Heart Matters appeal

WSH Every Heart Matters campaign logo (Image: Archant)

The group, which numbers 28 and meets at the Hyndman Centre, in Hospital Road, Bury St Edmunds, collected the money through a variety of events.

It included £148 from a jumble sale, £277 from filling empty tubes of Smarties, £51 from the sale of charity cards, £52 from the sale of jewellery, £20 a month from a lottery, plus money from a church fun day and bring and buy stalls.

Ann Kirkham, the group’s chairman for the past 36 years, said they chose the appeal as many members’ husband have been treated in the cardiac unit at the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury.

The appeal is aimed at raising £500,000 for the unit to help fund building a brand new cardiac centre at the hospital, in Hardwick Lane.

The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is investing £5.2m in developing a state of the art cardiac suite that will provide quicker access to more treatments, but the £500,000 My WiSH is hoping to raise will lead to the whole unit, which is currently fragmented on different floors, being brought together in one purpose-built centre.

The wives group, which is linked to the church in Crown Street, meets once a month and has a full and active events calendar.

Ann said: “We have raised money for many charities over the years and aim to do it for locally based organisations.

“We have quite a few of our husbands who have been in the cardiac unit and the members of the group decided they wanted to give it to the Every Heart Matters appeal which is aiming to raise £500,000.

“We have got a good committee and great girls as members.”

If you want to support the Every Heart Matters appeal go to the website www.mywishcharity.co.uk

If you would like to donate to the appeal you can do so by going to

Justgiving.com/ehma or text EHMA17 £10 to 70070.