As most of you who know may will be aware of, planning for the annual Michael Josephson MBE Charity Ball begins immediately after the end of the previous event. Literally at the end of the evening sometimes, as we often have discussions with hotel teams about what we plan to do next year – and when it will be held. These conversations keep going for the whole twelve months leading up to next years ball. It might seem hard to believe, but its true. There’s so much to do, and although I do work with a team, I do a lot of it myself. We need to think about venues, entertainment, production, guests, PR, food, drinks, flowers, what the tables will look like – everything. It’s quite an undertaking but I love it, and I wouldn’t ever want it any other way.

I do often feel the pressure of making each event bigger and better, of course it’s a good benchmark to set yourself but in reality every event is so special. Each of them beings something different, different guests, different singers or musicians and (like I can imagine with children!) I love them all equally for their own different reasons.

That being said, I am incredibly excited about one of this year’s star guests! Sadly, I can’t tell anyone yet or even give away any clues, but I can tell you that they are a total icon of British popular culture and have been for a long time. Stay tuned for further updates, because I know you’re going to absolutely love it. In the meantime, its busy, busy, busy!

I’m very lucky to have the support of the media, particularly the regional titles but also the national media too. I had a lovely chat with Becky Want on BBC Radio Manchester earlier in April. I appeared alongside my friend Alex Fairweather from GMYN (Greater Manchester Youth Network) and we spoke about the amazing work of the charity, and about the donation I made to them from the Michael Josephson MBE Charity Ball 2022. It’s good to get these chats in. Not only do they help to promote my fundraisers (and hopefully get more bums on seats) but they also work well to shout about the brilliant work of the charities I support. Here’s to many more to follow!