PETER Pan, Superman and Batman put their super hero duties on hold on Friday and instead took some time out to fundraise in Huntingdonshire. Once again, Children in Need gave thousands of people across the county the chance they needed to ditch their pins

PETER Pan, Superman and Batman put their super hero duties on hold on Friday and instead took some time out to fundraise in Huntingdonshire.

Once again, Children in Need gave thousands of people across the county the chance they needed to ditch their pinstripe suit, and parade in a super hero outfit or even cross dress.

And once again the charity antics have raised a fortune for good causes at home and abroad.

Schools, businesses, groups and individuals all joined forces to help support disadvantaged children in the UK.

The theme of the annual BBC event, which raised a staggering £19,089,771, was for people to 'do something different for Pudsey'.

This year, a total of nine projects in Cambridgeshire benefited from a slice of £206,171 that was awarded to the area through money raised for Children in Need. Charities to benefit from the cash included the Sick Children's Trust, CLIC Sargent and Adoption UK.

One of the biggest fundraisers from Cambridgeshire was David Poile. Through organising the Litte Gransden Airshow, he raised an impressive £17,175.

The cheque was handed over during a BBC broadcast at Newmarket by Mr Poile and British Aerobatic Champion, and owner of Little Gransden Airfield, Mark Jefferies.

The amount was the most the show has raised in 15 years of staging the event.

Staff at Myer's in Huntingdon raised £650 by holding a raffle, a cream cracker-eating competition and by putting their managers in the stocks and throwing water at them. Polish-born Roman Mucha won the cracker eating, munching his way through six crackers in three minutes.

A Brampton technician helped raise £1,200 for Children In Need by giving Pudsey Bear a lift on the back of his motorbike.

Motorbike Forum member Neil Manning was part of a 30-person relay that saw Pudsey travel from Edinburgh all the way to London.

Neil rode with Pudsey from Brampton to Baldock.

At the Prince of Wales pub in Bluntisham, the landlord and customers raised more than £1,000 by agreeing to wax their backs, chest, legs and arms, while two regulars also agreed to have their nipples pierced for the cause.

Elsewhere in Huntingdon, youngsters at St John's C of E Primary School dressed up as heroes and villains to raise £85. And at Huntingdonshire Regional College, students wore fancy dress, threw wet sponges at tutor Steve Freemantle, and learned football tricks to raise more than £700.

The Huntingdon Air Cadets raised £250 after bidding against each other to become adult staff and officers to take charge of the squadron for the evening.