A superhuman effort by employees at a Marlow company helped pull in £10,000 for Red Nose Day during a colourful day of fancy dress on Friday.

Workers at Softcat dressed as superheroes for a day of activities in aid of Comic Relief, including bike and golfing challenges, a dance competition and retro video game contest.

Staff at the IT firm also raised cash by nominating people for a dunking in ice-cold water, with Marlow firefighters on hand to help fill the ice cold dunk tank.

And on Friday evening many staff stayed late to help operate as a call centre for the BBC charity effort, helping to take thousands of pledges from generous donors across the UK.

Charles Harman and Michael Walker organised the day of fundraising and the call centre.

Charles said: “Every year we’re overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity – despite the countless fundraisers we throw, everyone continues to dig deep, and we’d like to thank our staff and generous partners for their donations and raffle prizes.

“Softcat staff always come out all guns blazing for fundraising days and Friday’s event was no different. The office was packed with cartoon characters and superheroes and everyone got really involved in all the fundraising activities.

“A special thank you to our employee Dan Clinch who shaved his beard off, raising £2,000 – it’s becoming a yearly tradition and I think he deserves a special mention.”

Elsewhere, a raffle raised £7,000, with prizes donated by Softcat’s staff and business partners.

Managing director Colin Brown praised the staying power of his staff, many of whom worked a ten-hour day before putting in a shift on the phones to take pledges through the night.

The proud boss, who escaped an ice dunking, said: “Their stamina is astounding so a big well done and thank you to them. I was delighted not to be dunked in the ice bath this year, and extend my thanks to the various managers who managed to get more nominations than me.

“Thanks to all our partners who’ve donated money or prizes, as always we don’t expect anything and really appreciate the thought.”

Softcat has several offices throughout the UK, which together raised £10,000 for the BBC charity.