A PENARTH boutique owner has raised enough money through online bingo nights with her customers to donate air conditioning units to a nearby hospice.

Jodie Tanner, owner of The Queen B Boutique in the town, set up the Bonkers Bingo sessions via Zoom to provide some fun for her customers during lockdown.

Across two weeks, the bingo sessions raised £1,000 for the charity, which was chosen by each of the weeks' winners.

“So many people come into the shop for a chat when we weren’t in lockdown, and I could see that the mental wellbeing of so many was low during lockdown, so I just went from there really and put something together to provide some fun,” she said.

“We didn’t have a theme in the first week, but then after that we’ve had a theme every week – the first week it was rollers, even the men were wearing them, and if people didn’t have rollers, they were wearing toilet rolls.

“The following week we had all kinds of hats.”

Prizes are given out throughout the night, and the winner of the final game is able to select a charity to win the funds raised that evening.

The Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale in Bridgeman Road was nominated two weeks in a row.

The £1,000 raised in those two weeks went towards mobile air conditioning units for the single rooms in the hospice - which provides round-the-clock expert end of life care.

Hospice manager Sarah Lloyd-Davies said: “We are so grateful to Jodie and all her customers – many of whom are local to us - for raising these funds and donating these units.

“It will make such a difference in the warm weather to patients in our single rooms.

“Thank you to all who have made this possible.”

Marie Curie’s fundraising activity has been devastated as part of the national coronavirus response.

The charity urgently needs funding to make certain that they can continue to provide services and keep doctors, nurse and hospice staff on the frontline, supporting dying people with and without coronavirus.

If you can help, donate online at mariecurie.org.uk/emergency or Text NURSE to 70633.