An appeal by a free weekly has seen £24,000 raised by readers for a new fleet of wheelchairs at a hospital.

Your Local Paper, which covers three towns in West Norfolk, started the campaign just over 10 months ago to raise money for the wheelchairs at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn.

Now the paper’s Wheel Appeal has raised enough money for at least 30 distinctive green wheelchairs.

Your Local Paper was launched in 2013 as an independent weekly to cover King’s Lynn, Hunstanton and Downham Market.

The wheelchair appeal was started last October after the hospital approached the paper.

Editor Donna Semmens said: “We are a community newspaper and if there was something we could do to help, then there was no hesitation in agreeing.

“We know the people of West Norfolk to be incredibly generous with both their time and cash, but had no idea that £24,000 would be raised so quickly.

It is a testament to our readers, their friends, family and colleagues that the target was met in under a year.”

Fundraising events to support the appeal included a 24-hour keep fit event, cake sales and wearing green and yellow clothes.

Hospital chief executive Dorothy Hosein said: “We are very grateful to our community for getting behind the Wheel Appeal. Although we have reached our target, we would welcome additional donations to increase the size of the fleet.”

The charity account will remain open so further donations can be used to buy more wheelchairs.