The WellChild Awards Launch 2018 took place on the evening of Thursday March 22nd at the historic venue Church House Westminster in the heart of London.
The launch event is a major fundraiser for WellChild, the national charity for seriously ill children, as well as a curtain raiser for this year’s WellChild Awards which recognise the bravery of seriously ill children and the care of the health professionals who look after them. Nominations for the awards are currently open here https://www.wellchild.org.uk/awards/
The launch was held in association with GSK and was kindly sponsored by Allianz, RSA, Infiniti, KGJ, Reditum Capital, LOT.TO and the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
The launch event was hosted by Gaby Roslin and featured performances by comedian Stephen Bailey, classical singer Natalie Rushdie and a live band.
Among the stars of the award launch show were previous winners of the WellChild Awards from over the years as well as some of the celebrity guests who presented them with their awards including Duncan Bannatyne and Dr Hilary Jones. The event had a chat show format in which the winners talked about their experiences and told how receiving their award has had a positive impact on their lives. There were video presentations showing why they won their awards and their highlights from the WellChild Awards ceremony.
There was also a gameshow element to the evening with fundraising games and a raffle draw to raise money for WellChild’s work with seriously ill children and their families in the UK.
WellChild Chief Executive Colin Dyer said: “Church House Westminster was the perfect venue for our WellChild Awards Launch event which has raised a lot of money for our work to improve the lives of seriously ill children and their families across the UK. It was wonderful to hear the stories of winners from previous years and we are looking forward to this year’s Awards where we will recognise many more brave and caring children, young people and health professionals. A huge thank you to all our sponsors and supporters for getting behind this event and making it really special.”