Family and friends of a much-loved Whitehaven woman who lost her life to suicide have raised more than £25,000 in her memory.

Adele Park died in 2018 and her loved ones started a fundraising drive to make a difference in their community.

With support from the Sunny Hill pub, where many fundraising nights were held, they have now reached their goal of raising thousands in Adele’s memory.

Around £3,500 had been raised for Mind West Cumbria before it closed and a further £9,000 will go to Cumbrian charity Every Life Matters. The remaining £13,500 is going to the Special Care Baby Unit, where Adele worked.

Husband David said: “It’s been a big group effort, I’m absolutely overwhelmed by how the whole community came together to help us raise all that money."

The group held a ladies’ football charity match at the Whitehaven RUFC ground, two rugby matches with the Whitehaven team and Arlecdon Masters, a half marathon in Leicester, a parachute jump and a cycling event with Team XII, among others. Thanks to support from friend Russell Henderson and his company DSD, much-needed funds were raised thanks to donations and raffle prizes.

David said: “We set off doing at bit of fundraising with help from the owners of the Sunny Hill, Dawn and Adrian Mcnicholas, and it grew from there. At one point we were absolutely living and breathing it, everyone chipped in. Adele would be very proud of us, she would have loved it.”

Close friend Craig Adam has also been pivotal in the fundraising efforts. He said: “When Adele died I felt so useless, so anything we can do to stop people having to go through something like this, we wanted to do it.”