A HAIRDRESSER attended a tea party at the House of Commons to mark the start of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Anna Clinton’s Saks Hair franchise at Sedbury Stables, near Scotch Corner, has to date raised more than £4,000 for the Eve Appeal, the UK’s only national charity funding research into the five gynaecological cancers.

The event was hosted by the charity and compared by Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West, who is chairwoman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ovarian Cancer.

A range of MPs, celebrities and women affected by ovarian cancer were also present, along with staff from Saks’ Darlington head office.

Later this year Mrs Clinton’s team will be taking part in a sponsored 12 hour swimathon when they go on a salon away trip to Marbella.

The Saks group as a whole has raised more than £85,000 for the Eve Appeal.

Mrs Clinton said: “It was a privilege to attend the special tea party at the House of Commons and to be surrounded by so many brave women affected by cancer.”