Hi there, thank you for your reply. She did a pretty good number on it. The wire inside is like a Russian doll - there is a layer of wire encased in plastic then inside that another layer of wire encased in plastic - no change of fixing it. I have spoken to dell and they want £50 so I have looked on amazon and found the exact same one for £25 so I am going to order that.
Also meant to add that it is the lead from the brick to the laptop and not the plug to the brick - that would be to easy!!! You can get that bit for almost nothing online.