TWO charity events in Worcester helped to raise more than £1,500 for the cystic fibrosis ward at the hospital.

Kimberley Price’s six-year-old daughter, Summer, was diagnosed with the condition which affects the lungs and digestive system when she was just two weeks old.

Summer, who lives in Worcester with her family, has been treated at Birmingham Children’s Hospital as well as Worcestershire Royal to fight her illness.

She developed some bacteria in her lungs recently, and Kimberley discussed using a faster nebuliser - a machine used to administer medication inhaled into the lungs - to treat her daughter during an appointment at the hospital.

Kimberley said that the hospital was struggling to get the faster nebulisers because of the financial strain put on the NHS due to the pandemic. It was then that Kimberley decided to try and raise funds for equipment for the hospital.

Aimee Ford, who runs online Zumba classes, heard about Kimberley’s fundraising efforts and decided to help. She held a live charity Zumba night and raised £1,200 to help Kimberley and Summer.

She said: “I got to know Kimberley when she started coming to my classes. We became quite close. My youngest goes to school with a boy whose brother has cystic fibrosis so I know a bit about the condition, and they were trying to raise money so I thought I would like to help.

“People could book the online class and pay £5 per ticket and some just donated separately as well. Everyone who donated is incredible, and not everyone had a particular reason to donate as they don’t have links to the illness, so it was amazing. I thought we would raise maybe three or four hundred pounds I’m very happy with what we raised.”

Kimberley’s friend, Claire Bird, also helped to raise £360 through a raffle of wax melts from her company, The Malvern Melts. Claire said: “I saw Kim put a post thing on Facebook to say that they needed some equipment to help Summer which they were struggling to get and it would make a huge difference. So I thought if I could do something just to raise even a little bit then it’s a help, and it’s great the money will go straight to the Worcester unit for Summer and other local children would benefit from it.”

Kimberley said: “I would like to say how thankful I am for those two businesses for helping Summer with raising this amount of money.”

The equipment will go towards treating Summer and other children suffering with CF at Worcestershire Royal.