Ball raises thousands for Hospice

Guests bid on a variety of luxury items and experiences, but the highlight was a run of generous bidding to refurbish a specialist bathroom at the Hospice inpatient unit in Highwoods, Colchester, providing comfort and dignity for patients into the future.

Further compassionate bidding on the evening funded a place on a new day service at St Helena, the Good Days Community Club, every week for a year, which will provide invaluable respite for carers and meaningful activities for people attending, helping to reduce social isolation and improve wellbeing.

Throughout the evening, guests heard about the impact of St Helena services and the growing demand for hospice care across the local community. The event highlighted the importance of philanthropy and community support in helping the charity to meet future challenges and ambitions.

Co-Chief Executives of St Helena Hospice, Kate Heslegrave and Dr Karen Chumbley, said:

"The Heart of St Helena Ball was a wonderful celebration and a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when a community comes together. The generosity shown on the night will have a lasting impact on the people and families we support every day. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who joined us and helped make the event such a remarkable success."

Ball organiser Rosalyn Leclercq, Senior Philanthropy & Legacy Manager at St Helena Hospice, added:

"We were overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown at our Heart of St Helena Ball. To raise more than £58,000 from sponsorship, ticket sales and on the night fundraising, is simply incredible and a testament to the strength of support we receive from our community. We are truly humbled by the generosity of our guests, sponsors and supporters, and we thank every single person who played a part in making the evening such a tremendous success."

The success of the event was made possible by the generosity of attendees who supported the evening through ticket sales, auctions, raffles, donations and pledge promises. St Helena is also grateful to its sponsors Thompson Smith and Puxon, Complete Event, Larking Gowen, Wenbar, Optimum Print, White Hart Flowers, Nexus Creative Print Production, Pully's Party Pieces and Ellisons Solicitors, and to the prize donors whose support helped make the event such a resounding success.

St Helena would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to Stoke by Nayland Resort and to all sponsors, table hosts, donors, volunteers and guests who contributed to the evening.