Annual Meeting & Charity Gala Dinner

The Circulation Foundation Annual Fundraising Gala Dinner was held on 7th May 2009 in the wonderful Governor’s Hall at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

The Foundation held an interesting meeting on improving outcomes in vascular surgery before the dinner, chaired by Mr John Thompson from Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital with presentations from Consultant Vascular Surgeons,  Mr John Wolfe (St Mary’s London) and Mr Tim Lees, (Freeman Hospital, Newcastle) and from Consultant Vascular Anaesthetist Mr Richard Telford also from Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. 

Attended by over 100 people, the dinner was preceded by a champagne reception in the Central Hall and guests were entertained by Mr Luke Bateman, composer and pianist, and Mr Anthony John, close up magician.

The dinner itself was a thoroughly enjoyable evening; a lively game of “heads or tails” set the mood for the rest of the night.  Alongside a delicious 3 course meal, the guests were encouraged to flex their mental muscles by partaking in a quiz on “things you never knew about London”.  After a fiercely contested battle of the brains (and some illegal “googling” of information on iphones!), the Charing Cross Hospital Table were named the winners and were presented with a bottle of Champagne.

Guests at the dinner were treated to surprise performance from Tenors and Divas Incognito, who certainly surprised some guests as the performers were masquerading as guests at the dinner!  After a rousing selection of opera and modern classics, came the charity auction, run by Mr Andrew May, Chairman of the Circulation Foundation and Anthony John.  We would like to thank all the bidders for their support and generosity and in particular, Mr Simon Parvin, who generously donated three beautiful, framed photos that he had taken on his travels.

During the evening, Olivia Brookman from the Broad Street Gallery held a silent auction in which a percentage of all works sold on the evening was donated to the Foundation.   A raffle was also held and many wonderful prizes donated by surgeons and local businesses alike were snapped up.

The Foundation would also like to extend its sincere thanks to Vascular Society President, Mr Peter Taylor for arranging the venue, Ian Franklin and the LAVVU Team at Charing Cross and VNUS Medical Technologies for their continuing and generous support.

This event raised over £9000 for the Circulation Foundation and we would like to thank all our guests for making it a truly wonderful evening.