Chester Racecourse helped charities raise a massive £28,134 through exit collections during the 2017 racing season.

A different local charity was present at each race fixture, with the opportunity to collect charitable donations from racegoers as they exited the course.

Some of the local charities who have benefited from the fundraising are Cheshire Young Carers, Wales Air Ambulance, Clatterbridge Cancer Charity, St Luke's Cheshire Hospice and The Countess of Chester Babygrow Appeal.

Not only did these inspiring charities collect money but were also given the opportunity to raise awareness for their cause.

Two of them collected well over £3,000 in just a couple of hours.

The figures are a credit to the generous Chester racegoers and the racecourse has thanked them for their support.

The racecourse has also donated badges and tickets for racedays to various charities for raffles and auctions amounting to a value of £23,368.

Chester Racecourse raise over £50,000 for local charities

This was the face value of the issued badges and tickets, but often they made much more in an auction than this.

With the second year of Project 1000 underway, Chester Racecourse is set to continue to help charities in and around the city.

Over the course of the next eight months, employees will go on day release to contribute back into the local community, donating over 1,000 hours of staff expertise in total.

As well as providing much needed skills and support to charities, the experience will be both rewarding and fulfilling for employees.

Chester Racecourse’s charity coordinator Jeannie Chantler said: “At Chester Racecourse we are keen to make sure that our corporate social responsibility strategy is put into place and not just talked about.

“With these opportunities we offer local charities the skills and hours from participants of Project 1000.

“We hope this shows we are committed to helping our local communities and their charities both now in 2017 and moving forward.”