Fundraisers are celebrating their highest ever number of weekly lottery players.

The Martlets Hospice Lottery recorded 12,000 players at the start of this month.

Sir Lance A Lottery joined the charity’s staff to celebrate along with player Beryl Briggs, who has played since it started in 2000.

Sheila Green, the lottery’s manager, thanked everyone who had played and supported the game, adding: “It is a very important source of income for the Martlets.”

The hospice says all of the 277 players who have been playing since the beginning have won something. Forty-four have won the top prize, £1,000, while three of them have won that twice. The odds of winning are around 1 in 300, compared to the National Lottery odds of 1 in 14 million.

The game has raised more than £2million for patient care for the charity, which cares for more than one thousand people in and around Brighton and Hove every year.