This was truly a cake with an inspiring story behind it. It was made to celebrate 35 years since the dramatic rescue of 346 refugees escaping the political situation in Vietnam in 1978. The 60-foot fishing boat (depicted on the bottom tier of the cake) were adrift in the South China Sea when a typhoon hit. The boat had already picked up passengers from two other similar boats that had capsized. All those aboard the now grossly over-crowded vessel, almost half of whom were children, were convinced that they would drown.

Just when all hope had vanished, the refugees sighted a cargo ship and fired their last distress rocket. The Scottish crew on board the ship, the Wellpark (on the middle tier), spotted the flare and went to their aid. A lifeboat was launched, and under very treacherous circumstances with waves 15 to 20 feet high, the courageous crew from the Wellpark managed to rescue all the refugees over the course of the next few hours. The rescue team reported that as they got alongside the vessel, bundles of cloth were thrown at them; at first they didn’t realise that it was babies and children they were catching. Some of the babies had been tucked into Adidas bags to try and keep them safe.

The Wellpark was due to deliver a cargo of grain, so the ship set off with its additional cargo of 346 refugees, and eventually docked in Taiwan. The plight of the ‘Vietnamese Boat People’ hit the headlines around the world. After several days of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, the refugees were offered sanctuary in Britain and were flown to London. As they didn’t have passports, they were all given blue luggage labels bearing their names to wear in place of more official identification.

One of these new arrivals in London was Diep who, three decades on, is now a mother herself to a little girl in my daughter’s class at school. This weekend many of the Vietnamese families who settled in Britain got together with some of the crew who rescued them to celebrate the events of 35 years ago.