A 'Heaven Sent' ball at Windsor's Oakley Court Hotel raised £16,000 for a charity that has worked for more than a decade to fund a children's hospice for Berkshire.

It was the 10th Heaven Sent ball organised by the Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Service charity, which made the newly built hospice in Maidenhead a reality.

Warm weather enabled the champagne reception to be held on the riverside lawn, where guests were able to have their photos taken with Irish Guard Lance Corporal Daniel Park and the regimental mascot Donal the Irish Wolfhound, before being piped into dinner in true ceremonial fashion by Piper Sean Quinn.

The MC for the evening was celebrity auctioneer Jonty Hearnden, star of ‘Cash in the Attic’ and ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’.

Throughout the evening dinner guests were able to partake of the ‘feather raffle’ with prizes including two Virgin Atlantic return tickets to New York, a orsche Driving Experience at Silverstone and a spa day for four guests at Nirvana Spa.

Guests were entertained by magician Dean Leavy, a former pupil at The Windsor Boys’ School and winner of The Magic Circle’s Young Magician of the year in 2017.

The fun continued with the live auction, conducted by long-standing friends and Ambassadors of the charity, the infamous Thomas Plant (BBC Bargain Hunt and Flog It programmes) and Neil Shuttleworth (chairman of the Ball Committee).

Co-founder and chief executive of the charity Fiona Devine said, “It was lovely to return to where it all started for our tenth anniversary Heaven Sent Ball.

"This is always a very special event to us and lovely to see that some of our guests that attended the very first Heaven Sent Ball are still supporting us."

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