A daily’s campaign to help people with dementia on its patch has raised three times its original target.

The East Anglian Daily Times hoped to raise £25,000 when it joined forces with West Suffolk Hospital Charity in March 2014.

However the Forget-Me-Not Dementia Campaign has now raised a total of £750,000 to help upgrade the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds.

The campaign was launched to help pay for reminiscence materials, help kit out a day room and create a memory walk to provide a calm and comforting area for patients with dementia.

In addition, it was hoped that the publicity surrounding the campaign would raise awareness of the condition and challenge people’s perception of it.

The extra money raised will now enable the hospital’s dementia team to identify and convert more hospital bays and wards to “dementia-friendly” areas.

A £25,000 dementia memory walk will now be created in the hospital’s corridors, which ill see local groups and organisations donate iconic images of West Suffolk landmarks.

EADT editor Terry Hunt said: “Our readers always respond with huge generosity for a good cause, and this has certainly proved to be the case with the Forget-Me-Mot campaign.

“Thank you all so much – and please keep the money coming.”