GUESTS at a masked ball are set for an exciting evening in aid of a children’s hospice.

The masquerade ball is raising money for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) which care for children with life-limiting conditions and their families.

The charity ball was something organiser Vicky Hicks decided she wanted to do back in 2019 after an open day at The Treehouse Hospice in Ipswich, one of EACH's locations.

She went along because she was keen to sign up as a volunteer for the charity's Help at Home scheme, to help support an EACH family.

Vicky said: "I spent a couple of hours at the Treehouse and was so incredibly touched and humbled by their work and what it means to the children and their families, that I knew I needed to do something to raise as much money as I could."

This is when she came up with the idea of a charity ball, which was meant to be in 2020 but was delayed until 2021. 

Organisers hope to raise as much as possible for the charity with the black tie event at the Five Lakes Resort in Tolleshunt Knights, and so a wide range of activities are planned.

There will be envelopes for guests to purchase raffle tickets, enter a competition, or simply donate money.

Essex-based cover band KIO will provide live entertainment for the evening with the best of the 60s through to today.

"The only thing we felt was missing was a celebrity host to keep energy up, get people spending their money and have us all laughing all night," Vicky added.

The organising team managed to secure Tom Skinner of The Apprentice and Celebrity MasterChef UK fame as the host.

The event will kick off at 6pm this Saturday.

"We aim to raise over £10,000 for EACH with this event and we’re very excited to bring lots of people together, give them a chance to get glammed up again and have lots of fun whilst raising thousands after so long without events of this scale having occurred."

Tickets are available at eachmasqueradecharityball.co.uk.

EACH has also announced more big-name stars for its Christmas comedy spectacular.

Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard and Johnny Vegas are just three of the star names confirmed to join Griff Rhys Jones for Happy Christmas Ipswich 2.

The star-studded extravaganza will take place at Ipswich’s Regent Theatre on December 6.

It also features Clive Anderson, Irish comic Ed Byrne and West End star Ruthie Henshall.

Others on the bill include Britain’s Got Talent magician Magical Bones, Daniel Sloss, Kai Humphries, the Nimmo Twins and Westdal and Hayward.

Tickets, starting from £40 (including a booking fee), are selling fast but still available via ipswichtheatres.co.uk and each.org.uk/griff.