MADNESS broke out at a town supermarket on Friday when it hosted a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in aid of a national charity.

Staff at Asda, in Spennymoor, set out a cafe in the store and baked more than 300 cakes, pies and scones to sell to shoppers, while wearing silly hats.

The tea party was sold out in two hours and raised £270 for the DebRA Jonny Kennedy Memorial Appeal, which aims to raise £1m to fund specialist nursing care and research into epidermolysis bullosa (EB) and related skin cancer in the North-East.

Mr Kennedy suffered from EB all his life and featured in the documentary, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off.

The appeal was set up in 2004 and has so far raised £600,000.