Lindsay Occleston Roberts, Sue Sherlock, Lesley Pearson, Talique Rowe, and Lindsay’s daughter Laura Occleston, each donned a Genesis T-shirt, a frilly pink tutu and flamboyant pink accessories to deliver the delicious hand decorated biscuits and tell people about the ball, which is being held at Cranage Hall on Saturday 24 September.

Roberts hopes to raise as much money as possible for the Wythenshawe-based Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal, which is the only charity in the UK entirely dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer. The charity is particularly important to Roberts Bakery, since Lindsay was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. Lindsay went through nine months of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to beat the disease. 

Lindsay said: “It means a great deal to me to go out and visit local businesses and tell them about this charity ball, even if I am dressed in a rather eye-catching style! We had great fun delivering our breast themed biscuits and were greeted with a really warm reception at every business we visited. This charity is very close to my heart and I am looking forward to hosting this superb fundraising event to increase awareness about how we can prevent breast cancer and raise essential funds for the charity.”

Tickets are selling fast - anyone interested in taking a table or individual seats are encouraged to book as soon as possible.

Staff from The Pastry Case ice hundreds of themed biscuits every day by hand and were more than happy to make a few extra biscuits for the local children to enjoy.

The Wingate Special Children’s Trust provides educational residential and holiday facilities and is also an accredited gymnasium for all ages and levels of disability and ability.

The centre has been specifically designed and equipped to cater for disabled and special needs groups in particular and aims to provide life enriching experiences to children and young adults who have learning and physical disabilities.  The idyllic rural location provides the perfect retreat for children to explore!

To mark the theme of “doing something funny for money”, the teams in Roberts Bakery and The Pastry Case staff made a donation to swap their blue caps for bright red ones – turning their whole heads into giant red noses for the day!

Other activities run throughout the day to raise money included a cake sale, sweepstakes and a casual dress day for staff in the office, raising over £230 for the charity.

The Mr & Mrs Red Nose Gingerbread twin-pack biscuits, are baked and hand decorated by The Pastry Case and supplied exclusively to Sainsbury’s instore bakeries nationwide. Over 239,000 of the biscuits have been made and with a donation of at least 10p going directly to Comic Relief, they have raised over £12,000 for Comic Relief. 

Joanne Tasker, Comic Relief Sponsorship Manager at Sainsbury’s, added: ”We’re on track to raise over £9m for this year’s Red Nose Day, thanks to products like our Mr and Mrs Red Nose Gingerbread biscuits and the fundraising activities that thousands of our colleagues and customers get involved in.” 

The mammoth biscuit which stood at a whopping 15 feet tall, 9 feet wide and weighing a hefty 440 pounds was installed by renowned food artist Prudence Stait at Sainsburys Newport store, before being broken off and sold to the public to raise money for Comic Relief. Those looking for something more manageable with their cup of tea were able to have a go at decorating their own gingerbread in the store over the weekend using biscuits supplied by The Pastry Case for some additional fundraising.

The Trust provides holidays, respite care and activity days for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the North West. CAFT aims to give these children the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives, recognise their potential and help them achieve their goals.

Mike Roberts from Frank Roberts and Sons presented the cheque to CAFT. He said: “We are absolutely delighted to be supporting this very worthwhile cause, which brings light and joy into the lives of many deprived and disabled children in a fun and caring environment.”

Paul Farrington, chief executive of CAFT, added: “We are over the moon to receive this amazing cheque from Frank Roberts and Sons. This is such a huge amount of money for us and it will help to change so many young, vulnerable lives.  We have enjoyed support from Roberts Bakery for many years now, receiving regular donations of bread for our holiday programme.”

The win was announced by Judith Batchelar, Brand Director and Tina Jeary, Head of Product Development and Technology at Sainsbury’s, during their Technical & Development Conference for the Fresh / Frozen Category. Competition was fierce with dairy, bakery, frozen, convenience meals, produce and food service suppliers all competing for the award.

The winning attributes identified by the Sainsbury’s team included:

• An outstanding BRC A* audit result
• Excellent product launches
• Submissions and attendance of all quality sampling panels
• Fast response time to actions and information requests

The award caps an amazing year for The Pastry Case team and is a remarkable note of recognition for their dedication to quality and new product development.

The achievement of an A* grade, represents an ‘unannounced’ visit by the auditor for the BRC and is the highest award possible for food safety and quality. The assessment covers a wide range of aspects including the food safety plan, site standards, product and process control, personnel and commitment to continuous improvement.  The win was closely matched by its sister company Roberts Bakery which also obtained an A*, making it an historic double for the Frank Roberts & Sons Limited group.

Stuart Borthwick, Director of Operations at Frank Roberts and Sons, said: “This is a fantastic achievement as we are one of the first manufacturers to secure this unannounced status and it shows our commitment to maintaining the highest quality standards every day.

“We have already started to receive positive feedback from our customer base which shows the high regard they hold for the BRC Standards and our A* status.”

Providing complete reassurance for retailers, the BRC Standards are an internationally renowned assessment of technical standards developed to evaluate manufacturers of food products against strict criteria for food safety and quality.