A BIRTHDAY celebration inspired charity workers to dress up as characters from a film to raise money for cancer sufferers.

Lynda Kavalliero, Mary Jenkins and Jackie Joseph all donned school uniforms as characters from the movie St Trinians, which is set in a boarding school.

The trio volunteer for the Chingford-branch of the Helen Rollason Cancer Charity in Old Church Road.

Ms Kavalliero said: "It's my 60th birthday this year and I wanted to celebrate it in store with the rest of the volunteers so we all decided to dress up as St Trinians.

"I love working for the charity.It's a great place to be and everyone is friendly here but we do need more people to volunteer their time to the charity shop."

The women donned their costumes on Friday, June 30, and raised £35.

The Helen Rollason Cancer Charity, which is marking its tenth anniversary, is named after the first-ever woman to present the BBC sports programe Grandstand, who gave her name to the charity shortly before she died of cancer in 1999 in a bid to attract national support.

The charity does not receive any government money and relies on funding from the community.

To help fundraise or for information call 01245 515242.