Two children who have lost their mums to cancer teamed up to raise money for charity.

Molly Patching and David Millar, both aged nine, organised a coffee morning at their
school in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

All their classmates at Balfour Junior School helped on the day, and their efforts collected £1,700.

Molly, who lost her mum, Emma, several years ago, has offered support to David since his mum, Katie, died earlier this year.

Rebecca Denny, the school’s family liaison officer, said: “Molly and David were in the same class last year, and Molly has offered David advice and
support. She has always been very open to talk about her mum, and she has been there for David this year.

“Both the children are very popular and they have got lots of friends who are very supportive. Everyone knows their story because they are both quite open and talk about it, so all the pupils were really supportive of the
coffee morning.”

The event was held at the school in Balfour Road, Chatham, last Friday. In the morning, mums, dads and grandparents came along to enjoy coffee and cakes, which had been donated by parents, staff and local supermarkets.

In the afternoon, Molly and David held a cake sale for all the pupils.

They also organised a cake-weight-guessing competition and a raffle after they wrote to local businesses asking for prizes.

Mrs Denny said: “Both the children come to see me to talk through their problems, and I suggested to them both about the coffee morning for Macmillan.

“Molly enjoys fundraising anyway; she holds a bake-off every year, and does Race for Life for Cancer Research.

"Between them, they organised the coffee morning, and it ended up turning into a full day of fundraising.”

Molly and David raised £1,784, and plan to Gift Aid their donation so it will total more than £2,000.

The amount includes £172 from Wilkinson in Chatham, which held its own coffee morning and donated the proceeds to Balfour, and £180 from David’s dad. He ran a marathon earlier this year, and split the money between four cancer charities.

Mrs Denny said: “Molly and David were over the moon with how much they raised. We are all really proud of them.”

• More World’s Biggest Coffee Morning pictures in the Medway Messenger today (Friday).