BRIDPORT’S schools and businesses made sure they put the ‘fun’ into fundraising when they pulled together for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day.

The theme for this year’s annual charity event was ‘make your face funny’ and pupils and professionals held a range of different events to raise cash for the cause.

Staff at Leaker’s bakery in Bridport donned their red noses and donated 100% of sales of their iced buns to the charity to raise £150, while the town’s branch of Specsavers sold special glasses, held a photobotth competition, and wore fancy dress while taking part in an in-store 100-mile cycle-a-thon, raising nearly £600.

Students from the Sir John Colfox School raised funds for Red Nose Day by putting on a charity talent show, holding a cake sale and lucky dip, and selling Easter bunnies, and Broadwindsor Primary School raised nearly £100 selling red noses and glasses.

See all the pictures in our gallery by clicking here. 

Elsewhere in west Dorset, Burton Bradstock students raised £136 with a cake sale and funny faces day, and Salway Ash Primary School students pulled out their red clothing for a non-uniform day and cake sale.

Pupils from Symondsbury Primary also got into the spirit of the day, topping off their costumes with funny hats, wigs and facepaint for the special occasion, and many other schools also wore fancy dress or disguises to mark the day, including St Mary’s Primary in Bridport, Powerstock Primary, Bridport Primary and St Mary’s Primary in Beaminster.

All the Red Nose Day activities raised money for Comic Relief, which fundraises for charitable causes in the UK and in Africa and was set up by comedian Lenny Henry and director Richard Curtis in 1985.

As a result of this year’s national campaign Comic Relief raised its highest-ever Red Nose Day total of more than £78m, adding up to a 30-year total of more than £1bn.