An Aberystwyth pub landlord has raised £2,000 for charity by not shaving for a year.

John Sampson, who runs the Vale of Rheidol pub has raised the impressive sum by letting his beard grow for 12 months.

John and his partner, Laura Foreman, took over the town centre pub in October 2022 and have been working on improving the public's perception of the pub ever since.

John said: "Had we known what a bad reputation for things such as drug abuse, violence and the likes, that the Vale had before we took over, I honestly doubt we would have moved here from Cardiff.

"Part of our philosophy for running pubs is that a small local pub should always be there to help and support the local community and the people of it.

"As such we do a good deal of charity work, such as an ongoing collection of spare food items for our local foodbank – Jubilee Storehouse.

"We collect Easter Eggs, Advent Calendars and Selection boxes for needy children each year, and ad hoc charity collection at all other times, such as Charity Darts competitions, (and soon Pool Comps), and most recently collected funds for a sponsored beard.

"In essence I made a point of zero shaving for a period of 12 months, with all the cash raised going to the local Mencap branch – Mencap Ceredigion.

"After counting all the collection buckets, and pledged cash, we managed to hit an amazing amount of £2000 – doubling our initial target of about a grand.

"We’re always looking to do more things for charity, so if any of your readers have a charity or two they would like to see supported, please do let us know!"