GRATEFUL heart patients from a South Lakes choir have donated money to a hospital charity.

Richard Bird from the Windermere and Bowness Community Choir presented £400 to the Hearts of Gold charity run by the Blue Skies Hospitals Fund at the Lancashire Cardiac Centre.

Four members of the choir had heart surgery at the centre which is run by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard, a retired company director from Windermere, presented the money to Mr Andrew Duncan, the cardiac surgeon who performed his operation in 2013.

Richard, 68, is also the chairman of the K Shoes Male Voice Choir in Kendal and is a keen hill walker.

Richard, who presented the money to the Hearts of Gold fund on September 25, said he was delighted the operation had enabled him to resume his hobby of hill walking.

The former managing director of machinery rental company, Aggreko, based in Dumbarton Scotland, explained: “One of my aims was to get up Helvellyn again. I’ve done that and I’ve been up some other fells.

“Our choir has eight male singers and four of them have had heart operations through the Lancashire Cardiac Centre in the last two years. All of the men are doing well.