A HEART attack survivor raised nearly £2,000 for a research charity with a bake sale.

Sue Hall was in her late sixties when she cycled home from bellringing at her village church in November 2010 not realising she’d had a cardiac arrest.

But after undergoing surgery to install stents in her arteries to hold them open, the 72-year-old is now raising cash in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

Mrs Hall and her daughter Jacki hosted a bake sale in their hometown of Freeland, near Witney, last Friday and raised £1,943 for the charity.

The mother-of-three said that as well as selling a variety of homemade cakes and treats and hosting a raffle, guests were donating cheques thick and fast.

She added: “It’s phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.

“It’s so satisfying that people are so generous. I always think ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.

“It’s a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things, but you have got to think about patients in the future, their families and grandchildren, so that’s what we’re aiming at.”

Mrs Hall knew her dad Ernest Peck had died from a heart attack aged 44 in October 1954 when she was 10.

Although she knew how her father died, Mrs Hall said she had not thought it would happen to her because she never smoked, did plenty of exercise and ate healthily.

She had gone bellringing at St Mary the Virgin Church in Freeland when she felt a “strange sensation” after climbing the stairs.

She cycled home and called her daughter, who came over and immediately called an ambulance.

Mrs Hall discovered she’d had her heart attack while at the church.

Although there are about 188,000 cardiac arrests in the UK each year, the BHF estimates 70 per cent of people now survive.

Mrs Hall is planning to host the fundraising event again next year and carry on raising cash for the charity.