A PARTY WITH SOUL!

On 6^th October, my bestie, Lis McDermott and I held our 15^th Business Birthday Bash with our partners, friends, business friends and clients.

We are both very grateful for everyone’s support.

15 things that happened during the night

1. Made loads of money – £3k.  Whilst celebrating our 15^th milestone in our individual businesses, that is not the main purpose of our evening. We wanted to raise money for Ainslie’s Pavilion Project.

Ainslie was a friend of mine who sadly died of cancer, and every bit of money we are raising, is making steady progress to create a living legacy to one of the bravest and most determined women we have ever known. If we can raise enough money to create a new modern and inclusive pavilion at Purton Cricket Club in Wiltshire, that will be a living community legacy in her name. It will be one of my proudest achievements and we are a little step closer to that goal, which was massively affected by the pandemic. When I say ‘we’ I mean a group of us determined to create something positive and of value in Ainslie’s name. £3,000 for Ainslie’s Pavilion Project is a step closer now to getting planning permission.

2. Got to dress up or dress down. The instructions for dress code was – what you fancied!  In my case, a pirate outfit, in purple! (This was Ainslie’s favourite colour.) Some people came in jeans, in fact most men came in jeans, though one was wearing joggers, and my husband, shorts. The ladies also made a choice, from smart casual through to fancier dresses – everyone was welcome. It was about enjoying the evening and taking part – not how you looked.

 

3. Got to see the art of balloons. Angela, the balloon lady has an amazing talent.  She created hats (more like fascinators), and arm decorations. There was quite a menagerie in the room by an alien, a ninja, penguin, monkey, lizard, fish, flamingo, and several floral designs. Plus, many of them had little flashing lights!

 

4. Enjoyed good food. We had a very tasty 2-course meal, and people made good use of the bar.

 

5. Got to pose for loads of pictures. Our photographer, Barbara Leatham took photos during the night, and then people could pay to have their photos taken for £5, which also went towards the charity.

 

6. Laughed with friends. You could tell everyone was enjoying themselves by the sheer noise in the room. Laughter, chat – it was just buzzing the whole night.

 

7. I sold a few books but no pressure. I had my Diaries on sale and for the first time my book –‘The Hard Yards’, which I was obviously very excited about.

 

8. I gave away some books for free at my discretion.  There were some people who had supported me and I felt they should receive one.

 

9. Saw and felt raw emotion. Our speakers were the wonderful Louise and Chris Hunt Skelley, and as the theme of the evening was love, they shared the story of how they met.  It was an extremely emotional and very funny talk at times, as they passed the mic between them. Louise did quite a bit of the talking, but Chris added in some great humour.  They are definitely a double act. At the end of their talk, Louise read Chris the poem that she’d asked Lis to write for them. It was basically a love poem to Chris from Louise.

 

10. Shared moments we couldn’t anticipate.  Phil talked about Ainslie’s cancer journey which many of us hadn’t heard. It was heart-breaking to hear, and very brave of Phil to share with us. And even more special, he brought ‘Ainslie’s cancer journal’.  He told us there were parts he couldn’t read to us, even now, but this was the first time he’d brought the journal out of the house.  So, all of us there knew how privileged we were to hear her words.

 

11. We sold out of raffle tickets – does that ever happen? That was totally unexpected, but brilliant, because it meant we earned more the charity. And, also thanks to Hannah, Kevin and Lauren? who were rushing around selling them

 

12. Both Lis and I were surprised to receive some presents from some of the guests, which we hadn’t expected at all. It wasn’t something either of us had even considered. But it was a lovely surprise.

 

13. There was quite a bit of people ‘trying to out-do’ each other in the bids for the auction, which again was fantastic, and helped raise the amount lots went for.  This was completely down to our wonderful auctioneer, my friend Paul Martin.

 

14. My friend Dan Stubbins created a short video, which gave an overview of the nights’ events.  That was perfect for our social media.

 

15. As I’ve already mentioned, the theme of the night was ‘Love’ in all its guises. Love for each other, our partners, friends, clients, our businesses and much, much more. We felt the love in the room, as our friends came along to support us.

 

We had an amazing night!