Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday will be marked by an RAF flypast while a snake was rescued after getting trapped inside a family’s new oven in Tuesday’s uplifting news.

These are the lighter stories you might have missed.

– Snake slithers to safety after close call with family’s new oven

A snake has been rescued after getting trapped inside a family’s new oven.

The surprised household called the Scottish SPCA after they noticed the cornsnake on the tray of the appliance at their home in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.

The oven had to be dismantled to rescue the snake, which was spotted before it was turned on.

It is not known how the snake, which is around two and a half feet-long, came to be in the oven.

Scottish SPCA animal rescue officer Louise Hume said: “Only about six inches of the snake was visible on the oven tray, the rest was hidden somewhere inside the oven.

“With assistance from my colleague, inspector Jack Marshall, and the member of the public we were able to take the oven apart and rescue the snake.”

– ‘Sisters’ with incurable cancer back lockdown Race for Life at home

Two women living with incurable cancer hope to inspire people to keep up the fight against the disease during the coronavirus pandemic by taking part in Race for Life at home.

Nicky Newman, from Guildford, and Laura Middleton-Hughes, from Norwich, are both 32 and both have stage four cancer which has spread around their bodies.

After being told the news that their cancer was incurable, the women set up an upbeat, online community called Secondary Sisters, to support anyone going through a similar journey.

Now the pair are encouraging people to take on Cancer Research UK’s coronavirus lockdown alternative, Race for Life “at Home” challenge.

Race for Life events have been postponed in large numbers around the UK, to help protect the country’s health during the coronavirus outbreak.

Race for Life at Home means people can do their own event whenever and wherever it suits them – within the constraints of Government guidance on coronavirus.

People can visit raceforlife.org and sign up free for ideas on how they can create their own Race for Life at Home challenge.

– RAF flypast for Captain Tom’s 100th birthday

Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday will be marked by an RAF flypast.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) will carry out an aerial salute on Thursday after Captain Tom raised £29 million for the NHS by walking laps of his garden.

This will replace a flypast over his Bedfordshire home planned by a Spitfire restoration company in Kent.

Timings of the BBMF flypast have not been publicised amid fears that crowds could gather to view the spectacle.

An MoD spokesman said: “Weather permitting, aircraft from the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will complete a flypast to celebrate Captain Tom’s birthday and mark his amazing fundraising achievement.”

– Supermarket sends cakes to couple spending 60th wedding anniversary apart

A couple spending their diamond wedding anniversary apart because of the coronavirus outbreak got a special treat to make their celebrations a little sweeter thanks to their local supermarket.

Ken and Alice McGinley, from Johnstone near Paisley, married 60 years ago but have been living separately since Alice, who has dementia, moved into a care home last year.

When former Royal Engineer Ken, 81, contacted his local Asda to try and order a cake to send to Alice, 77, to mark the occasion last Thursday, staff there went one better.

Ken said: “They were very understanding and they took my name and address and the next day they phoned me to say they’d got me a cake with all the decorations on.

“I asked when I would go and collect it and they said they would deliver it to me and it would be all free of charge. It really was such a wonderful gesture.”

They also sent Ken, who used to visit Alice every day until the Covid-19 pandemic made that impossible, a separate cake of his own and a box of chocolates, a gesture he said left him feeling “overwhelmed”.