THERE were smiles galore at a Saffron Walden school when the children held a cake stall with a difference.

Every cake sold – big and small - at Dame Bradbury’s School had a smile, raising �205 for the charity Operation Smile which supports a network of volunteers who travel across the world to operate on children with facial deformities, particularly cleft lip and cleft palate.

At the start of the Bake a Smile Week, consultant plastic surgeon Per Hall, Addenbrooke’s lead clinician for cleft lip and palate services, spoke to the children, explaining how the operations are carried out and the huge positive impact each one has for the child involved.

A school spokesman said: “Dr Hall had visited the school last year to ask Dame B’s pupils to make surgical gowns for children to wear during operations. On this second visit, he told them that the gowns they made had saved enough money for at least four operations – and he urged them all to bake smiling cakes to raise yet more money.

“The sale was a great success, with some very creative cooking including some of the staff depicted on cupcakes, a cat-shaped cake and some smiling heart cookies.”