Hospital Heroes ride sees 280 bikers hit the road

A charity ride involving 280 bikers has beaten last year's amount raised for cancer care with a total of £3,545.

The fifth annual Hospital Heroes ride between Needham Market and Ipswich was in aid of services offered at Ipswich and Colchester hospitals.

Motorbike groups from across East Anglia took part in Sunday's 42-mile round trip.

The combined fundraising effort from two previous annual rides saw £4,000 collected for charity.

Organiser Kev Jackson added: "This year is an amazing amount of money and we did what we set out to do and smash last year's total."

Weggy Wegg, of Ipswich-based Suffolk Biker Family, said: "To us personally, it's extremely important... There's never enough money from our perspective for research and for the wards.

"Because we've got such a great community, something like this just builds and builds every year."

This year's ride will particularly benefit the Woolverstone Macmillan Centre at Ipswich Hospital.

Debbie Gibb and Michelle Hermitage also took part.

Ms Gibb, who lives on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, said: "It's a great charity.

"Cancer affects so many people and there's a lot of people who've suffered with it themselves, or have got family [with it], so it's really, really important."

Ms Hermitage, from Framlingham, who was taking part for the second year, said: "I do know a lot of people that have suffered with cancer."

She added she wanted to "give something back" to the hospitals in Ipswich and Colchester after her husband had used them.

Ms Gibb said it had been a good ride, with people donating as the bikers rode through the villages.

James Stephens, of the Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity, said: "The contributions go towards helping patients [and] to provide care that's over and above what the taxpayers can pay for."

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