A RESTAURANT is supporting a drive to make Trafford a ‘Heart Safe’ borough through a special ‘Donate your pennies - Drop in your euros’ campaign.

Pesto Italian restaurant in the intu Trafford Centre is supporting the UK charity Hand on Heart by asking customers and staff for donations of any spare change and leftover foreign currency this summer.

The charity aims to raise awareness and train teachers to save children's lives with a defibrillator in schools nationwide, and ultimately create ‘Heart Safe’ cities, where all the primary and secondary schools have life-saving equipment - a defibrillator - and training has been provided to staff and pupils.

Salford, which became the first ‘Heart Safe’ city after the charities successful initial campaign, is close to the heart of both organisations and it is home to the Irlam Head Office of both Hand on Heart and Pesto Restaurants.

Hand on Heart are now just a few schools away from completing its second mission in Trafford, so to support the campaign all customers need to do is drop in to Pesto and donate any loose sterling or euros into the fundraising tins at the restaurant throughout the summer.

Manager Jo Taylor said: “When we found out about Hand on Heart’s campaign to make Trafford we couldn’t help but put our full backing behind it and help benefit children within the borough in any way we can.”

The charity has placed more than 830 defibrillators in schools and communities across the UK since 2011 and is committed to reducing the number of deaths in young people due to a sudden cardiac arrest.

Victoria Burrows, chief executive of Hand on Heart, said: “Twelve young people sadly die every week due to a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) but many of these lives could be saved if defibrillators were more readily available, so we are committed to ensuring that as many schools as possible get the resources they need.”

In the UK approx 270,000 people a year suffer from cardiac arrest and their chance of survival reduces by between seven to 10 per cent for every minute that passes by without defibrillation.

Hand on Heart was also named as one of intu Trafford Centre’s chosen charities for 2016.