What a knock-out
night
By Colin Grant
THE boxing dinner organised by the Philip Green Memorial Trust on Tuesday evening raised a magnificent
£70,000 for our hospice appeal.
 t
was a glittering affair and will be long remembered by all
concerned, with the generosity of the 400 guests at the Glasgow
Hilton exceeding all expectations.
However, the star of the show was undoubtedly auctioneer Jeremy Beadle.
£30,000 auction
The auction raised more than £30,000, with guests paying top money for, among other things, a pair of boxing gloves signed by World Champ Lennox Lewis, boxing shorts autographed by Muhammad Ali, a limited-edition bottle of malt whisky by Morrison Bowmore, holidays to Florida and Tobago, and signed Rangers and Celtic tops.
By the end of his stint Jeremy even managed to sell a handful of nothing for £2500!
As the auction came to a close Jeremy asked the highly-enthusiastic crowd to make one final effort for the cause. He told them, “We haven’t quite reached our target for the auction, we’re £1500 short and I’ve nothing left to sell.
|
(From left) — Group Captain Gordon Moulds, auctioneer Jeremy Beadle, Air Commodore Martin
Routledge, and Cyril Paskin, chairman of the Philip Green Memorial
Trust.
Above — Ex-Rangers striker Mark Hateley (rear, left), and organiser Tommy Gilmour (rear right).
|
“Who’ll be kind enough to give me £100 for nothing? If we can get 15 of you to step forward we’ll make our target.”
Incredibly, 25 generous souls stood up and made the contribution.
Chairman of the Trust, Cyril Paskin, said afterwards, “When I held my first fund-raising dinner 15 years ago in London around 200 people turned up and we made £5000.
“It’s fantastic that the first dinner we hold in Glasgow is so successful.
“It is unbelievable that so much money was raised.”
All the money will go to a special hydrotherapy unit at the new children’s hospice on the banks of Loch Lomond.
The Royal Air Force had a huge contingent at the dinner who had travelled from their bases at Leuchars and Kinloss.
Their competitive bidding under the watchful eye of Flight Sergeant Eamonn Jenkins ensured the auction was a busy affair.
The guest list consisted of a mixture from the worlds of big business, showbiz and sport. Among those at the Top Table alongside Jeremy Beadle were actor James McPherson and comedian Roger de Courcey whose cabaret act went down a storm. Indeed, later in the evening when Roger drew the raffle tickets he caused a bit of a stir when the first ticket he produced belonged to Cyril Paskin. It was quickly discarded and another drawn.
Great supporters
James, Jeremy and Roger were joined by Richard Harrington, who recently bought one of Scotland’s top hotels, One Devonshire Gardens, Anthony Harris, the Chief Executive of the Hilton Hotel Group and William Ward, the chief executive of Clipper Venture PLC.
All are great supporters of the Philip Green Memorial Trust and CHAS.
Former Rangers star Mark Hateley and snooker manager Ian Doyle were also introduced to the crowd along with ex-boxers Ken Buchanan, Jim Watt, Pat Clinton, Gary Jacobs and John McDermott.
The guest of honour was RAF Group Captain Gordon Moulds, originally from Aberdeen but now based in High Wycombe. He paid tribute to everyone who had worked so hard to ensure the night was a success.
Among those he singled out were PGMT committee member Jack Zimmer and 12 employees from the Abbey National.
Commendable
The bank has a highly commendable approach to helping good causes.
It arranges for staff to carry out charity work in their spare time and in return donates a sum of money to the charity involved.
Jack, from Glasgow, who made the arrangements with Abbey National, said, “The 10 girls and two boys from the bank saved us a great deal of money.
“Without them we would have had to employ 12 people to sell raffle tickets and help with the auction.
“It was a very generous gesture.”
In the ring, Allan Foster from Renfrew outpointed Clint Johnson from Leeds; Andrew Ferrans (New Cumnock) outpointed Peter Allen (Birkenhead) and Jason McKay (Co Down) outpointed Dean Cockburn from Doncaster. |
You can e-mail us at:
hospice@sundaypost.com
|
