Excitement is building across the country as preparations for Macmillan Cancer Support’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning get underway in Chelmsford.

Cake lovers can look forward to a fun-filled, fundraising event at M&S Chelmsford on Friday 29 September.

With a week to go M&S Chelmsford is encouraging shoppers to join them for a coffee and a sweet treat as they pull out all the stops, including store colleagues taking it in turns to ride fitness bikes at the entrance of the store over the course of the day - all in the hope of reaching their fundraising target.

In the lead up to this year’s coffee morning, the store held colouring competitions for children and all the entries are set to be judged on 29 September.

The customers will also see M&S Chelmsford colleagues looking extra bright, as they don green t-shirts, green tutus and green wigs for Macmillan.

2017 marks the eighth year that M&S has partnered with Macmillan Cancer Support – a collaboration that has raised an incredible £10 million for the charity to date. Each year, M&S hosts World’s Biggest Coffee Morning events in its stores across the length and breadth of the country, and Essex was one of the top fundraising regions in 2016.

The collective efforts of M&S stores and customers helps fund vital support and services for people living with cancer across the UK, which make a huge difference in hospitals and within local communities.

This year, M&S and Macmillan are aiming to surpass last year’s fundraising total of £3.2million - enough to fund 66 Macmillan health care professionals for a year - and hope to see a record number of people in M&S cafés and Foodhalls later this month.

Gary Ridgeon, Store Manager at M&S Chelmsford, said: “We’ll have lots of fun activities happening at our World’s Biggest Coffee Morning event on Friday 29 September, and hope to see as many of our customers as possible as we raise a mug to help beat cancer.

"The annual Coffee Morning is a great way to bring friends, family and communities together, all whilst raising funds for a fantastic cause. We hope that this year’s event will be our most successful yet.”