A MAJOR food festival has signed up to work with two charities to ensure the event supports important causes in the local area.

Organisers of the Didcot Food Festival, to be held at the town’s Civic Hall on Saturday, October, 27 are working with Team Mikayla and Style Acre at this year's event.

Volunteers from Team Mikayla will be welcoming visitors as they arrive at the venue.

This charity was set up in 2010, following the diagnosis of Wantage-based Mikayla Beames’ with brain cancer at the age of four.

Mikayla, now 12, has fought the brain tumour ever since, undergoing chemotherapy along with numerous surgical procedures.

But she has also made it her mission to help other children with cancer by giving them treats to cheer them up, turning this desire to help others into the charity.

Trustee Barry Hopkins said: “We are hoping that people visiting the Didcot Food Festival will support us by giving generous donations.

“We have so many children we want to help, and every penny donated can make a difference.”

Team Mikayla grants wishes up to £500 in value per child and fulfilled the dreams to more than 50 children who are treated at the John Radcliffe Hospital Kameran Ward where Mikayla gets her treatment from.

The festival will also support Style Acre, which supports young adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Originally a residential care home in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, when the property went up for sale, the charity was formed in 1992 by parents of people it supported.

They succeeded in raising the money to purchase the property and took over running the home in 1995 before selling it in 2004 with the money raised going to purchase 'supported living' houses.

In just 14 years, the charity has gone from supporting 20 people to 250 with numbers growing annually.

Style Acre has developed their first day hub, Turnstyle, where people supported can enjoy leisure and developmental activities.

The charity also runs a tea room at Savages Nurseries in Blewbury and a kitchen in Didcot where they will make the cakes to be sold at their stand at the Didcot Food Festival to raise vital funds.