Helping out and having a ball

It was yet another sparkling success for The Butterfly Ball as celebrities partied the night away to raise funds to help the families of desperately ill young children.

Alongside the Rhys Daniels Golf Challenge tens of thousands of euros will have been raised for the Homes for Homes appeal.

Every year the fund-raising weekend – one of the biggest on the Costa del Sol – promises to be a super weekend of golf, fun and entertainment, and it always lives up to its billing.

Hosted at the famous Puente Romano Hotel on Marbella’s Golden Mile, compere for the night was Mike Osman.

The multi-talented radio and TV personality, who became famous as an impressionist, kept the audience entertained all night long in between a succession of top acts.

Guests were treated to a wealth of entertainment from the likes of 14-year-old Jack Kane, and Bobby Davro. Also entertaining the crowd was UK Pop Idol runner up, and hugely successful best selling star, Gareth Gates.

Tee Green took to the stage to show just why he has become one of the most sought after singing coaches internationally. In his long career he has backed stars like Kylie Minogue. He has worked his magic on acts including Blue, Westlife, Lighthouse Family and Alexander O’Neal, and he brought that talent to the stage of the Puente Romano.

The weekend’s golfing was again a great success.The annual golf event is one of the key fundraising events on the Rhys Daniels Trust’s event calendar.  The sun-soaked affair always attracts a good turnout and a host of stars have taken part over the years.

At the time of going to press a total for the amount raised had not yet been reached, but organisers were hoping it would approach, or even beat the €40,000 raised at last year’s event.

The Rhys Daniels Trust is a UK based charity that provides a Home from Home for families of children enduring lengthy hospital stays.

Often seriously ill children have to travel many miles away from home to get the specialist treatment. By providing living accommodation near hospitals the charity enables families to stay close by, particularly important when they have other young children.

The charity was set up by the parents of Rhys and Charly Daniels who both died at a tragically young age. rather than decend into self pity the children’s parents Carry and Carmen founded the trust as they recognised the need for some sort of accommodation for families. In the 20 years since it was founded the trust has helped hundreds of families.

And the winners were…

Winning team in the Rhys Daniels Golf Challenge was that of Alan Darlow Entertainments. It was made up of Alan Darlow, Adam Darlow, Gareth Gates, Barry Daniels (played Saturday) and Brett Little (played Sunday).

To play two days is too much for Barry Daniels due to ill health, so he played one day and Brett Little took his place for second day of the competition.

Runners up were team Taskworthy – Tom Dixon, Daren Coates, Nick Lewis and Craig Fairbrass

Winning Individual was David Hall from Sustainabilty team

Winner of Longest Drive Europa course was Guido Dekker from The Individuals team

Winner of Longest Drive America course was Brett Little from Alan Darlow Entertainments team

Winner of Nearest the Pin Europa course was Steve Pethard from Stoneforce 1 team

Winner of Nearest the Pin America course was Neil Woodward from The Individuals team

Winner of Wooden Spoon was David Frost from Sustainability team