Over at Anson s Haddenham and Sutton factories Rachel Crout and friends all paid £1 each to dress in sportswear for the day. One employee, Kathie West, turned up for work in her leotard. To add to the fun, the staff also held a sponsored baby photo compet

IT may not have been easy on the eye, but the array of colours on display at an Ely school last week were all for a very good cause – Children in Need.

Pupils at Ely St Mary’s Junior School were asked to make it colourful’ on Friday to help raise money for the annual BBC event.

“The idea was to wear as many colours as possible,” said Lisa Thorne, one of the teachers.

Apart from individual dressing up, each class had to run two stalls to help raise funds for the charity.

In all there were 24 stalls which included activities such as splat the rat’, apple bobbing and a mucky dip.

The 360 pupils of St Mary’s Junior School raised more than £500, all of it out of their own pockets.

“It was an excellent day all round,” said Lisa who, together with colleague Sophie Edwards, helped organise the day.

INDIVIDUALS, schools and business from across East Cambridgeshire pulled together to help raise

thousands of pounds for Children in Need, adding to a nation-wide total that topped £18million.

Across the district, people of all ages were dressing up, having legs waxed and taking part in the fun and games that have become an integral part of the fundraising calendar.

Over at Anson's Haddenham and Sutton factories Rachel Crout and friends all paid £1 each to dress in sportswear for the day. One employee, Kathie West, turned up for work in her leotard.

To add to the fun, the staff also held a sponsored baby photo competition. A total of between £500 and £600 was raised.

Sue Farrow, from Ely, wore her pyjamas to work at Cambridgeshire County Council. And if that was not enough, she followed this with a session at the gym (Paradise Centre, Ely) where she spent 75 minutes on the treadmill, raising about £220 through sponsorship in the process.

Sarah Cattini and her friends supported Children in Need by walking from Littleport to Ely and back (12 miles). This raised more than £120.

Sarah Kitchen and colleagues at the Soham branch of the Cambridge Building Society organised two competitions - a ,pictured, Pudsey Bear treasure hunt and a Pudsey spot the difference contest - and raised £42.

At Rackham School,

Witchford, the children

made delicious cakes in the shape of Pudsey the Bear, and managed to raise £523 for the charity.

A non-school uniform day at City of Ely Community College on November 17, added another £600 to the kitty.

At St Andrew's Primary School in Soham, author Adrian Townsend signed copies of his books, the Gran's Gang, and made a donation to Children in Need. He may have been a bit surprised by some of the pupils as the school was staging a 'crazy hair' day to even more money for the charity.

n A future event for Children in Need is a rock session at the City of Ely Community College on Friday, December 1.

Tickets, available from Fenland Music and Burrows' Bookshop, cost £2.50.