Ascot Ladies Day was again fantastic and despite the recent bad weather the sun finally shone on us and our guests!

Held at the Crathorne Hall Hotel in Yarm it was enjoyed by 50 guests. Guests were greeted with a bucks fizz before being welcomed by Sue Hewgill Peterson (founder of We Can Dance), who explained all about our charity and the work it carries out in supporting dance in over 18 schools. This was supported by a short video showing the Royal Visit to The Forest School by Sophie Duchess of Wessex (Now the Duchess of Edinburgh) to see We Can Dance in action. This video was created for us by Marc Thorneycroft who also took some great drone shots of everyone!

Thanks to the hotel who served a beautiful lunch we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course. Lucy of Artichoke (Grange Road, Darlington) again supported us with her beautifully arranged flowers in what has become our traditional trade mark at this event – tea cups and saucers. These were given as gifts to one lucky person on each table.

Catherine Hart, milliner, again provided the most gorgeous hats for many of our guests to try on, and hire if wanted, at just £10 for the occasion, with all proceeds kindly donated by Catherine to We Can Dance.

We enjoyed watching all the racing and the added spice of the racing competition which was generously sponsored by Parker Prestige . Congratulations to all our winners!

The day was full of fun with a spectacular raffle draw and a presentation of flowers donated by Artichoke plus a facial treatment from Wynyard Therapy to Dianne Trodden who was the winner of the Best Dressed Lady competition .

We must thank everyone for supporting us, especially Crathorne Hall Hotel for their contribution to the raffle prizes plus their amazing staff for their help throughout the day (especially with IT issues!) and helping us to raise a magnificent £2,519 for We Can Dance!

Click on this event to see pictures from the day!