Nurses in Epsom Hospital have presented a cheque for nearly £250 to the British Heart Foundation after organising a cake sale earlier this year.

Sister Mary Gray and healthcare assistant Helen Shirley, from the hospital's coronary care unit, asked colleagues to buy sweet treats to raise cash for National Heart Month in February.

The sale raised £248, which they presented as a giant cheque to Heather Hunt, the charity's fundraiser volunteer manager, on 9 May, who said the Foundation had collected more than £2 million raised for National Heart Month so far this year.

She said: “We are incredibly grateful for this donation. To raise nearly £250 is a very generous amount, and a lot of people obviously volunteered their time to bake the cakes too, which is fantastic.”

John Davey, chairman of the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, described the sale as “a genuine display of the spirit of the staff who work at our hospitals.”

He added: “To volunteer their own time to raise this money for the British Heart Foundation is testament to their commitment to our patients and to the wider community.”

The British Heart Foundation uses donations to fund heart disease research as well as equipment in hospitals and specialist coronary care nurses.