THERE were plenty of cheesy smiles at a cheque presentation with a difference in Dorchester.

A cheque made of cheese was handed over to fundraisers for the Royal British Legion from Dorset based cheesemaker Ford Farm.

It was the dairy's novel way of presenting the £8,507.16 raised for the charity through selling poppy cheddars during last year's Poppy Appeal.

The cheese cheque will be treated as a normal paper cheque by Lloyds Bank and will be used to transfer the amount raised from Ford Farm's account to the RBL account.

Ford Farm made 10,000 of the red-waxed cheddars in the shape of the poppy last autumn, which were sold at Tesco as well as at local outlets including the Fridge Delicatessen in Dorchester.

Martin Crabb, the brains behind the idea and head cheesemaker at Ford Farm said: “We are hugely committed to supporting initiatives like this here at Ford Farm – and just as much we love a challenge.

"We created a hand-made mould in the shape of the poppy and coated it in red wax and the result was even better than we hoped for."

Adam Brown, The Royal British Legion’s Community Fundraiser for Somerset, was invited to make help make the first batch of poppy cheddars and said they had been a "great idea".

He added: "We love creative approaches to the Poppy Appeal."

Mr Brown thanked Ford Farm and Tesco for their support for the appeal.

Ford Farm staff also donated more than £100 to the cause.

The cheque was designed and hand-crafted by Tanys Pullin, Ford Farm's creative consultant, specially for the occasion.

She made the cheque using the dairy's White Cheddar and Sage Derby cheeses and spent about five days pressing it, chilling it, cutting out the logos, letters and numbers and creating the text.