THE Whitegate businesswoman who founded the #CakesOfKindness campaign is hoping others will join her in their kitchens to help an African community devastated by flooding.

Lily Newman was aiming to deliver more than 1,000 homemade cakes to key NHS workers and vulnerable people in the area – a target she was able to reach over the weekend.

Rather than winding down the campaign however, she is ramping up the baking and is taking it out to the nation, encouraging 100 companies or individuals to bake 100 cakes of kindness to take the total past 11,000.

As well as starting the #CakesOfKindnes campaign, Lily is a founder member of Act4Africa – a charity that provides education, healthcare provision and vocational training to thousands of women and girls in East Africa.

Northwich Guardian:

Lily with Moses during her work with Act4Africa

And Lily is hoping that those who receive a cake can help those who have lost their homes due to the worst floods that Uganda has experienced in a lifetime.

“We have learnt that seven of our girls in Uganda who are already losing their education because of the Covid-19 lockdown have now lost their homes due to the worst floods that Uganda has experienced in a lifetime,” she said.

“They are surviving in displacement camps which makes them particularly vulnerable, and our Act4Africa team is doing everything it can to help.

“In Uganda, there is no NHS or furlough provisions, and for many, if you can’t work, you can’t eat.

Northwich Guardian:

“These communities, home to the poorest of the poor, are where the floods have hit hardest, and we hope that you will be prepared to stand alongside our team and provide them with the support they need to survive and to keep our girls safe.”

Lily says that as a result of the Guardian’s previous coverage of her cake campaign, she has had requests from nurses in Cambridge and a lady in Bristol, who wanted her to bake a cake for her dad who had just been diagnosed with cancer.

“The postage was costing a fortune, so I thought it would be great to get loads of people to sign up and bake and distribute cakes in their own communities,” she added.

“Local telephone company Concert Networks and Northwich pensioner Dorothy Bell, who received a cake, have signed up to bake 100 cakes each, as has Middlewich-based happiness coach Sally Coles-Robertson.

Northwich Guardian:

“If you have benefited from #CakesOfKindess or if you want to do something immeasurably kind for some of the most desperate people on our beautiful but fragile planet today, please give what you can.”

To get involved with the campaign, choose who you would like to bake for and ask them if they would like some cake.

Bake and deliver the cake to them, and after delivering 100 cakes, message the Cakes of Kindness Facebook page with some pictures.

Participants have until August 31 to bake and deliver their cakes, and after reaching 100 cakes, participants will receive a certificate as a thank you from Lily.