Youngsters prepare for A-list ball

Wednesday 30th May 2012

Six inspirational young people are preparing to walk the red carpet alongside celebrities and famous faces at a charity's fundraising ball.

The youngsters are due to attend Caudwell Children's Diamond Butterfly Ball with singers Rod Stewart and Peter Andre and presenter Sir Bruce Forsyth.

The May 31 event, at London's Battersea Evolution in Battersea Park, will be hosted by entertainer Jonathan Wilkes with Jeffery Archer acting as auctioneer.

All proceeds raised will help to fund the work of the hospice, based in Stoke-on-Trent, which provides specialist equipment, treatment and therapy for families coping with a child's terminal illness.

The young VIPs include five-year-old Rhianna Jones, from Talke, in Staffordshire, who has complex heart conditions, and 11-year-old Kavanagh Hood from Trent Vale, in Stoke-on-Trent, who has Kabuki syndrome.

Also on the red carpet will be seventeen-year-old Jack Morrell, from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and has been supported by the charity since 2006 when he was given a Storm Powerchair worth £16,000, and 20-year-old Amy Hughes, from Wallasey, Merseyside, who has Cockayne syndrome, and who has also received equipment by the charity.

Joining them will be Esther Robinson, nine, from Halesowen, in the West Midlands, who has a condition called cardio facio cutaneous syndrome, and seven-year-old Finley Fairs, from Bognor Regis, West Sussex, who has cerebral palsy, and received help to raise £25,000 for a selective dorsal rhizotomy operation to help him walk independently for the first time.

All the youngsters have also attended the charity's Destinations Dreams trips to Florida accompanied by a medical team and volunteers to help the trip run smoothly.

Trudi Beswick, the charity's chief executive, said: "We are very excited about this year's event and it is with great pleasure we welcome some of the charity beneficiaries to share the occasion and highlight the work of Caudwell Children."

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