A very big thank you from us and The Lighthouse Centre to all our guests, raffle and auction prize donators and social media supporters who made our annual Big Birthday Bash such a resounding success!

We had 30 guests at our charity networking BBQ and even the sun made an appearance. Thanks to Brian and his very friendly and accommodating staff at Stables Bar and Grill, the venue was perfect for the event! The food was delicious, especially the coleslaw, probably the best I have ever tasted! Brian welcomed our guests with a complimentary drink which included a punch that packed a real punch! And finished us all off with a Panna-Cotta that melted in the mouth. Thanks guys, we will be back again next year!

Our very own Trevor Ray presided over our first auction, which could have gone either way but was absolutely hilarious! There was a furious battle between Rod and Lisa from The Tess Group and Stephen Collier (watch out for his new book!), Russ was bidding against himself to win the lunch with Val. Mark from BCM Cost Management just had to have the cleaning donated by Ann and Claire from Time For You Northants, Ann went on to win the stall at Fabulous Finds Fair in Corby. Finally Freddie Rayner from Time For You snapped up our Trev and his presentation training, what a giggle and an awful lot of cash raised!

We had a grand total of 32 prizes donated (click here to see the full list) and the raffle was very entertaining, with swappsies going on around the room! All email notifications between winners and donators has gone out, so please arrange collection and enjoy! If you are experiencing difficulties do get in touch. A special mention and thanks to James Thorpe who was snap happy and captured the event, all the images here are courtesy of James – cheers chuck!

The next day we posted the amount raised – £868 to Facebook, Gavin Pittams from Construction Solutions pledged to take that up to £900 – how generous is he?!? In fact when he called to transfer the funds he donated £50!

A special thank you for our wonderful cake lady Mindy, from SophistiCake Creations who has requested the full amount we paid for the gorgeous lemon and vanillia cup cakes be given to The Lighthouse Centre and has ripped up our cheque! How very generous Mindy, thank you so very much!

Making our final figure to present to Gemma and her team at The Lighthouse Centre a fantastic

£968

Thank you all!

*late breaking news! Ben O’Brien from ID Card Centre has donated £50 to bring our total to:

£1,018