A mixture of pain and pleasure at an award-winning Heathfield food company has yielded more than £1,300 for the Brain Tumour Charity and The Royal Devon and Exeter ­Paediatric Oncology Fund.

Last Thursday staff and friends at Paramount 21 staged a barbecue while at the same time production engineering manager Alan Philips allowed people to take turns to wax his hirsute chest and back.

Mr Philips put himself through the ordeal as his two-year-old grandddaughter Leah Martin has battled through multiple operations and chemotherapy since being diagnosed with a brain tumour in December.<