High as a Kite

Well I am currently on cloud 9 and high as a kite!

About a year ago, I started talking with my family about doing a Ball in aid of Myeloma UK, just 3 months after my Stem Cell Transplant. After a couple of months of flitting around with the idea, and a few of my friends signing up to the idea of a small ball to raise some money, January this year saw the start of our planning. Hmmm….a small ball….amazing how some ideas grow!!

Last weekend saw our Glitz and Glamour Ball come to fruition. Now I am not one for over-egging a situation, but my God was I chuffed with what we achieved. The room made me cry it looked so perfect, the atmosphere was just amazing, the entertainment was all-encompassing, and I hope that all of our 275 guests, whether they had money to spend or not, felt that they were part of something pretty special. I certainly did! It felt like we did everything that we set out to achieve; raise awareness, make lots of money but also give all our friends and family a great night out.

So, how much did we raise – well to date we are well over £22,000! Over twice our original aim, and I think the whole team feel that it was totally worth all of the time that we gave up. And we are still counting….there are still bits and pieces coming in, and people keep asking how to make donations (see below!)

I am so amazed at the generosity of everyone. Nick and the kids who pretty much lost me for the last 2 months, my four friends, Karen, Lisa, Justine and Taniece who gave up their time with their families, their work time and so much more to make it happen and Clare who spent hours ironing chair covers and folding serviettes with Justine! Companies who donated so generously and took out adverts (even those who didn’t have a link to me or Myeloma UK gave raffle prizes, silent auction prizes and auction prizes which helped us to reach such a fantastic total). A special thank you to Technology Group for providing the iPad as our first prize for the raffle and Jay Kay who donated the helicopter ride that raised so much for us. Thank you to Autostyling UK for sponsoring us, and our printers (IGS UK and Michael Burbridge Ltd) who produced so many superb pieces for us, including our Beautiful Event programme. Gwen (and Linda from MUK) who helped to design all our bits and pieces, Steve and Nick who did our website for us, EOS and Aspen Graphics for donating so much of our stationery. Hire Heaven and Artisan who created such beautiful tables, East End Foods for sponsoring the Casino, Lonely Walls for sponsoring the Wonderbooth and WPA for their donation of mints. Sally for being so understanding with all the Photographs! Gerhard for playing beautifully throughout our Welcome Drinks, Gary for being such a fantastic DJ and David for all his work with the AV equipment. Adam, for being a great compere and Richard for helping us raise so much in the Auction. Thank you to Lost Vegas Casino, and Wonderbooth for discounting their services so that we were able to afford them for our guests and to the Crowne Plaza for working so hard on the night. And very importantly, a huge thank you to our volunteers who made the whole night run smoothly and worked themselves to the ground! And of course our thanks go to all of our guests for creating the most amazing atmosphere and being so generous on the night.

There will stil be a couple of weeks of work to tie everything up, get prizes out to people and make sure that I thank people properly, but whilst it has been a long time coming, I can’t say that I regret one second of making the decision to do the Ball. I loved every second of the night which was an added (and unexpected) bonus on my part.

So to all of you who donated, helped, supported and came along on the night, thank you so much. And raise a glass to yourselves as I reckon we did a storming job to raise that sort of money!

And one final thank you goes to all my friends and family who I have basically ignored over the past few months while my life was full of the Ball. I hope that you can all understand why I did it, and that we can make up for not seeing each other over the next few weeks and months!

For those of you who have asked how you can still make donations, there are two ways;

1. By BACS to account:

‘Glitz and Glamour’
Sort Code: 40-24-38
Account No: 21407929

2. Via our Virgin Money Giving site at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/glitzandglamour

Every penny helps to support myeloma patients and families, and also can be used to help with groundbreaking research that will hopefully prolong the life of patients like me and a number of my friends. Maybe one day, your money will also help to find that cure that we are all desperately hoping for.

Thank you Everyone.

Debs xxxx