THE STREETS of Wylam were awash with beautifully bedecked bonnets, colourful caps and flashy fedoras last week as villagers put their heads together for charity.

All generations of the village threw themselves headfirst into the Wylam Wears A Hat event on Friday.

The fund-raising spectacular was organised by residents Emily Surash and Viv Smith to mark national brain tumour awareness day.

Initially, Emily and Viv had planned separate events to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

Emily was organising for the children of Wylam First School to wear hats.

And Viv had thought that the village choir, Wylam Singers, could also don headwear and sing hat-themed songs.

After uniting their charity endeavours, Wylam Wears A Hat snowballed into an unstoppable force.

Nearly every business, organisation and community group in Wylam got involved.

A ‘hat-eroni’ pizza was on sale at the Wood Oven pizza parlour, Stobos greengrocers concocted headwear from knitted fruit and vegetables, the Black Bull pub held a raffle and a competition for the best headwear was hotly contested at the Fox and Hounds pub, to name but a few.

Viv said: “The day was absolutely wonderful, we had quite high hopes for it but they were exceeded. The atmosphere throughout the village was tremendous.

“People passing us donated money as they went by and even the man in the signal box threw down a donation.

“Everyone who took part has come up trumps.”

Viv and Emily are still counting the proceeds of Friday’s event and believe to have raised just over £1,000.

Emily, who also hosted a hat-themed party at her home, said: “This kind of event is what the village is all about. The response has been overwhelming.

“The statistics are shocking for what goes towards brain tumour research with regards to how many people suffer and die from it.”

For more information visit: braintumourresearch.org