Our Winter Ball is bringing the stars to Sheffield

22 November 2011

Big names will be heading to Sheffield this weekend for our Winter Ball, a glittering fundraising event that will benefit children from across the region.

Our patrons Michael Vaughan and Jessica Ennis will attend our bi-annual black tie bash, along with celebrity couple James Toseland and Katie Melua and a throng of businessmen and politicians.

Entertainment at Pond’s Forge International Venue on Saturday will be provided by Keane’s Tom Chaplin, Britain’s Got Talent stars Stavros Flatley and Alexandra Parker, plus local band The English Gentlemen.

The Winter Ball will raise money to support innovative projects at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust. Two featured causes on the evening will be: the Ryegate Children's Centre hydrotherapy pool, used in the treatment of disabled children from all over the region; and raising money to fund two 3D Pain Distraction Units at The Children's Hospital, which will help young patients through what can sometimes be painful and upsetting clinical procedures.

Our last Winter Ball in 2009 raised an incredible £65,000. This enabled us to provide the hospital with a state-of-the-art cardiac ultrasound machine, which has been helping to protect young hearts ever since. This machine helps decide the right course of treatment for seriously ill children on the Intensive Care Unit and patients undergoing chemotherapy and has also been used in life-saving surgery in the theatres department. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Beer, aged five, is just one of the hundreds of children who have benefited from this machine. When he was admitted with septicaemia and multi-organ failure in September, the use of the ultrasound machine led to a quick and accurate diagnosis and the best course of treatment. 

Dylan’s mum Colleen said: “We can’t thank the hospital enough for everything they did. Dylan was in intensive care for eleven days and in hospital for four and a half weeks altogether. 

“Dylan’s just turned five and is getting stronger every day now. And he’s here and that’s the main thing.”