A WINSFORD woman has been named as one of the British Heart Foundation’s quirkiest fundraisers of the year after holding a miniature horse show to raise funds for the charity.

The nation’s heart charity has released the list of its top 10 quirkiest fundraisers of the past 12 months, revealing the wild and wonderful things people have done to raise money for life-saving research.

Chloe Lewis, 21, from Winsford, raised £1,300 for the BHF by hosting a miniature pony show at Reaseheath Equestrian Centre in Nantwich and featured seventh in the top 10 list.

Chloe has been fundraising for several charities over the past few years. This year she chose the BHF to help support the 844,000 people in the north west that are living with heart and circulatory disease. More than 40 ponies entered the event in May this year. Chloe owns five miniature ponies herself and thought it would be a fun and different way to raise money for the charity which is close to her heart.

Chloe said: “To be able to support the BHF by doing something that I enjoy has been amazing. So many people’s lives are affected by heart disease and I really wanted to do what I could to join the fight against heart disease and help fund research that will save lives.

“Arranging the event, seeing how much fun everyone had taking part and how much money we managed to raise has been so rewarding. I will definitely be arranging another fundraiser again soon.”

The BHF is funding 58 research projects in the north west, and is committed to funding half a billion pounds of research across the UK by 2020 to help beat heart disease.

Leah Goodhind, fundraising manager for Cheshire at the British Heart Foundation, said: “It is only because of people like Chloe that we can continue funding our life saving research into beating heart disease.

“It’s great to see all the weird and wonderful ways our fundraisers raise money, and we are so incredibly grateful for the time and effort that they put in and the people who support them. By following in their footsteps you too could join our fight against heart disease and help us save lives.”