GUESTS from Herefordshire and further afield gathered at Brampton Abbotts, near Ross-on-Wye on June 25 to attend a spectacular charity ball.

The event, which was held to raise money for Birmingham Children's Hospital, was organised by the Tobey family as a way of giving something back for the care that their son Charlie received while a patient at the hospital.

Charlie, now 15, was born having contracted autoimmune hepatitis in the womb. An urgent liver transplant made him the youngest ever recipient of a transplanted liver in the UK.

In 2009 Charlie's body started to reject his liver and over the next few years his health deteriorated to the point where he required another transplant. Charlie's father, Chris, became a live donor. Unfortunately this transplant failed and Charlie was put at the top of the European Super Urgent Transplant List. After a lengthy wait Charlie received his third transplant on July 15, 2015 and finally left Birmingham's Children's Hospital after almost three months. His story has recently aired as part of the Channel 4 documentary Inside Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Over 330 people, resplendent in black tie, attended the ball and Charlie's mother, Rachel, was delighted to announce that the final amount raised from ticket sales, auction lots and raffle prizes exceeded £75,000.

The money will be used to fund either a PhD student studying a liver related research project for two to three years or to help fund a national project to promote liver donation.