Record numbers of guests sipped champagne with the glitterati of tinsel town at the ALMT’s annual Burn’s night dinner, but unusually the Hollywood’s a-listers did not have much to say for themselves.

The waxworks at Madame Tussaud’s set the scene for a tremendous fundraising evening, raising almost a staggering £300,000 for the ALMT and AfriKids’ project Operation Sunlight.  The project works to prevent illegal child labour in Galmsey, a gold mining district in Northern Ghana.

Operation Sunlight works to keep children out of the mines by providing education and vocational training and the generosity of the donations last Thursday night will go directly towards stopping this abuse of children’s rights and similar projects around the world.

Supporters of the ALMT enjoyed a champagne reception in the A-list party room before sitting down to a traditional Burn’s Night dinner with haggis, neeps and tatties. Stand up comedian and compere for the evening Nick Lawson welcomed everyone to the event and said how deeply grateful he was to all the supporters of the ALMT.    

The Scottish dish was piped in and for the fourth year in succession Alan Brown gave the Ode to a Haggis while guests toasted the meal with a wee dram o’whiskey.

The ALMT would like to thank our non waxwork star for the evening Countdown’s Rachel Riley for leading the game Heads and Tails throughout the dinner.

The ALMT’s 350 guests took part in raffle, and a silent auction before AfriKid’s Director Georgie Fienberg showed a film about Operation Sunlight. The film revealed both the violation of children’s rights when forced to work in the mines and the successes of Operation Sunlight to date.

A live auction with luxury prizes including a holiday to Barbados showed the competitive spirit of the guests as they battled it out for the lots and their overwhelming generosity.

After the meal guests took to the dancefloor and celebrated another highly successful Burn’s Night for the ALMT and the new Deutsche Bank charity of the year Afrikids.

The ALMT would like to thank everyone who worked tirelessly in organising the evening and the band of volunteers from AfriKids. However, a special mention goes to Lissa Wallington and Rebekah Speers from Afrikids and Amy Parker and Mairead Smith from Deutsche Bank for their fantastic efforts.    

If you would like to know more about the ALMT’s projects or ways to get involved please do not hesitate to contact Debbie Gore at debbie.gore@almt.org     

Thank you again for all your support and fantastic generosity, it is greatly appreciated.