Having taken part in several fundraising events organised by CRY, I wanted to try and do something personally that would combine having fun, increasing the awareness of this amazing charity and also, hopefully, raising some money.

I realised that other supporters had previously hosted a Ball and felt this was something that matched up really well with what I wanted to achieve. At the same time, one of my very dear friends had been diagnosed with cancer for the second time and also wanted to raise some funds for Cancer Research, so we decided that we could combine our efforts and that between us we could put on quite an evening.

The Ball was held on Saturday 18th October 2008 during CRY’s Awareness Week. We came up with the theme of “Black, White & Diamonds” and were lucky to have so many wonderful and resourceful friends and family who all helped.

We managed to sell 200 tickets for the event, which took place at the Bluebirds Banqueting Centre in Dover. The evening was a wonderful success – we raised £4,108 for CRY with donations continually coming in. This was much more than we had expected and we also made a similar donation to Cancer Research.

Everyone made a superb effort to dress to the theme and enjoyed the excuse to dress up. They were treated to a lovely 4 course meal thanks to the venue staff and great entertainment by way of a disco and local band “Malarki”. I made a short speech to outline the wonderful work being done by CRY and highlighted how they could all get involved and help – and we all raised a toast to Paul who I know would have been so proud.

So many kind and wonderful people attended the ball, gave raffle prizes or organised items that could be used on the evening. It has made me appreciate once again that I am truly blessed to have such fantastic friends and family and that I couldn’t do it without them.

I had such good feedback that I will be looking to organise another Ball in 2009 – now all I need to do is think of a new theme!

Carly Sykes