A FIVE-a-side team took part in a fun run to raise money for a hospital's cardiac unit.

Six members of the J&M Beechfield team, which plays in a league at the Oak Leaf Sports Complex, Newton Aycliffe, participated in the 2km fun run attached to the CD Bramall Ford Darlington 10km Road Run last weekend.

The team is coached by Paul Harker, who won the first 10km race in 1987, but had a defibrillator fitted in 1999 after suffering a heart attack the previous year while running in a race in Newcastle.

His son, Adrian, suggested he and his team-mates, all 15, joined the run to raise money for an echocardiograph machine at the James Cook Memorial Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Mr Harker, who hopes to raise £5,000 for the machine, said: "The hospital saved my life because I was dead on the table for 15 seconds and had a big defibrillator on my chest to bring me back.

"My son got the rest of the lads together and said they could get a few sponsors to try to help raise some money."

The team, Adrian Harker, Michael Fitzgerald, Colin Pearman, Craig Nixon, John Roberts and Andrew Burgess, managed to raise £150 through their efforts.