IT RAISED almost £100,000 through its Big Red Heart Appeal in just four years, and upwards of £300,000 over its lifetime, but sadly the heart of the Grimsby District Health Care Charity has stopped beating.
Over the years the charity was able to provide countless pieces of vital equipment for Grimsby's Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital, undoubtedly saving many lives.
But it will be perhaps for the Big Red Heart appeal that the charity will be best remembered.
Launched in 2010, it aimed to raise £2 million to develop a coronary angiography suite at Grimsby's hospital, with a new catherterisation lab where numerous procedures would be carried out.
It was taken on as the Grimsby Telegraph's official campaign that year, with regular stories and appeals designed to give it the coverage it needed to succeed in its vast fundraising efforts.
A similar campaign in the previous year saw more than £150,000 raised to provide essential beds and equipment to aid bowel cancer patients. The Big Red Heart appeal itself raised £93,500 but it is thought the charity itself raised upwards of £300,000 for equipment.
The money raised by the appeal will go towards a test bed at the new unit when it is built.
It was first launched by Ron Kitching in the late 1990s after he had a heart attack and underwent major surgery that included a quadruple heart bypass.
Speaking shortly after the launch, Ron said: "It's been brilliant so far and we need people to keep donating and keep getting involved because every penny will go towards new equipment."
Along the way, the appeal was not short of support, with scores of people taking on challenges and organising events to help.
Among them were Neil Corry, of Scartho, who took on the gruelling Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon last year, and Sam Jensen, of Cleethorpes, raised almost £500 when she took on the Milton Keynes Marathon in 2012.
A Bollywood night was held at Cleethorpes Memorial Hall, while BBC talent show star Lee Mead performed at the Grimsby Auditorium in a fundraising night.
But, on announcing the winding down of the charity on Monday, trustees said the charity had ultimately never recovered from Ron's death last year.
Grimsby District Health Care Charity's charity shop, in Freeman Street in Grimsby, closed its doors on Friday for the final time.
Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph following the news of the charity coming to an end, general manager Vonnie Johnson said staff and volunteers were "devastated".
"There has simply been nobody to take his (Ron's) place with his level of dedication; that's the top and bottom of it," she said.
"The charity has run its course, but over the years it has provided some fantastic new equipment.
"Hopefully, now the hospital will name the suite or a piece of equipment after Ron. He deserves that because he dedicated his life to this charity."
Karen Griffiths, chief operating officer at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, thanked the charity for its "invaluable" support.
"The trust is grateful to everyone involved with the charity over the years both past and present," she said.
"Without their help and continuous commitment to the cause and passion to the benefiting of local patient care, we would have been very limited as to what additional items we could buy with the funding we already had.
"The additional support often brings the meaningful things to patient comfort, privacy and dignity to the care provided.
"There is no doubt this support has been greatly appreciated by staff and patients locally."
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