Peterborough goes all out for Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning with coffee, cake and head shaves!

The charity’s annual World’s Biggest Coffee Morning once again proved to be a stirring success with people going out of their way to do something a bit different to bring in the donations.

Among those to do something a bit different was NeneGate School teacher Tania Scutt who braved the shave to raise £1,400 for Macmillan, with more pledges still coming in.

Tania (54) agreed to say goodbye to her hair at the hands of caretaker Mark Langstone having lost one friend earlier this year to cancer, while another is now terminally ill with the disease.

She said: “I thought I would do something positive. I can’t change what’s happening, but it will help somebody else. It was just a mad moment on the way to work!

“It’s been really helpful for the children to go through the process as they did not understand that people lose their hair when they have cancer.

“This was giving them the understanding of what people go through.”

As for her new look, Tania admitted: “I was a little bit shocked!”

Others who made a big effort included the ‘Eye Lovelies’, who in previous years have raised £20,000 through their retro coffee mornings and discos. Having started with a 40s theme five years ago, the group moved onto the 90s when they entertained visitors - including Deputy Mayor of Peterborough Cllr John Fox and Deputy Mayoress Cllr Judy Fox - at the Eye Community Centre. So far they have raised £4,500.

Co-organiser Gemma Rorison said: “The event again was a success. Thank you to the people who came to support us for both events. Thanks to our families and friends for volunteering and helping on the day and to everyone who donated raffle prizes.

“Thanks to the deputy mayor and mayoress for coming to the event and the lovely ladies at Macmillan Peterborough for their constant dedication.”

Longthorpe Lawn Tennis Club also got into the swing of things with their own coffee morning (after some matches) which raised £260, while Longthorpe Village Hall was handed over for free to the Peterborough Women’s Association for their own event, which was co-organised by Salma Latif and Rukhsana Kausar.

Salma wanted to thank Rafiq Catering for donating the food and Faz Ali from Goldstar Diamond Cars for his contribution. She added: “We see a lot of coffee mornings with basic cakes and biscuits, so we thought ‘let’s do East meets West’ with an Indian breakfast! We raised £450 which was a brilliant result.”

More than £135 was also raised by the team at Johnston Press (the publishers of the Peterborough Telegraph) at their offices in Unex House, Bourges Boulevard.