Saffron Walden raised its coffee cups for the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning last Friday (September 25) in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Businesses and clubs rose to the challenge with many fundraisers going the extra mile by holding raffles and games too.

Victoria Nardelli, owner of The Hair Boutique, in the High Street, which had a stall outside the shop, said: “I have always wanted to do a Macmillan coffee morning and show my support. People have been very generous. The shop raised £163 by the end of morning and would have raised more but we sold out of cakes.”

“I only bake for the school and my children, usually, but I was up to 11.30pm the night before finishing the Victoria sponge off.” added Victoria.

Clients at the salon brought in cake for the stall, and Tesco Express donated two as well.

The Angela Reed Café and Bakery raised £320.60 thanks to organisers Alison Reed, Jenny Barnes and Christy Kemp. They continued taking donations for the next few days and ran a spot the cake competition.

Ms Kemp told the Reporter: “This is the first one we have done. I did not expect it to be this busy. I am really pleased with how it has gone.”

Susan Ross, chairman of Cambridge Quilters, held a raffle in the cafe for a handmade quilt.

Susan said: “Half of the proceeds will go to Macmillan while the other will go to the David Rayner Foundation. All the members made the coloured blocks on the quilt and then we had one person to assemble it. It took about five months altogether.”

The Salon was another keen fundraiser on the day and the next day. They had cake left over so they carried on, raising £400 and still counting, including proceeds from their pampering prize raffle.

Oliver Eastwell, who runs the hairdressers, said: “We thought that while tea, coffee and cake are nice, every woman loves to be pampered, so most of our raffle prizes will offer them the chance to enjoy some gorgeous treats. We want to thank the other businesses in the town for their generousity.”

Prizes included a meal at The Eight Bells pub, a haircut and two blow-dries and a Beauty Bunny voucher.

Residents from Hanover Place, retirement housing, headed to Saffron Walden Bowls Club to raise as much as possible, and counted £263.43 by the end of the day, beating last year’s total of £180.

As well as butterfly cupcakes and chocolate brownies, the club also played Homemade or Bought, with each member blindfolded and asked to guess which they thought it was.

Organiser and the club’s events manager, Natalie Sell, said: “Last year, we had a resident fighting cancer. It is very close to people’s hearts here.”

Toast and teacakes joined cakes on offer at Friends’ School, where more than £365 was raised. The total was boosted by a spot the cake competition to guess the number of spots on the cake as well as a faked or baked test to see if people could taste the difference between home-baked and shop bought cakes.