Heartstart Malvern has just received the single largest donation the charity has received, thanks to the generosity of the Co-op supermarket, its Community Fund and their customers.

Trustees of Heartstart visited the Upper Howsell Road Co-op store, one of three in Malvern, to collect a cheque for £9,189.15.

The staff at the store were holding a charity day to raise further funds for Heartstart by dressing up in pyjamas and running a raffle.

Heartstart Malvern chairman Richard Vakis-Lowe said: “We are absolutely overwhelmed with the size of this donation and would like to thank staff at the Co-op stores across Malvern and their customers for their support over the last 12 months.

"This is the largest single donation that we have ever received. We will be using the money to buy a further six life-saving defibrillators and cabinets.”

Trustee Sarah Grout said: “You can well imagine what a huge difference this sizeable donation makes to a small charity like Heartstart Malvern.”

Mr Vakis-Lowe said: "It has been an incredible year for Heartstart Malvern.

"The highlight was training our 2,000th person on World Restart A Heart Day in October.

"Our work in schools is going from strength to strength and we are now delivering training in a majority of Malvern schools.

"We hope that within a few years every secondary school age child in the Malvern area will have been trained to use a defibrillator which will help make Malvern become one of the safest places in the UK to have a cardiac arrest."