What a sensational night this was.
It was a private invite night for my Elite Black Card and Gold members – where we auctioned off 17 items – all donated by some very special people as all the proceeds went to the late Major James Joshua Bowman’s designated charities of the Royal Gurkhas and Rifles Battalion which in total came to just under £40,000.
Major James’ brother Brian Wright managed to get two very special ceremonial Gurkha knives that went for £3,000 each.
My wife Bella and I donated a solid gold membership to Stringfellows/Angels (a one-off never to be repeated) that went for £5,000.
Ralph Taylor who is chairman of the Almond Beach resorts in Barbados donated a two-week holiday in any one of his hotels. We added two business class return flights and the whole lot went for £5,000.
Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White donated a masterclass for ten people plus lunch with him personally and that went for £5,000.
WBA Heavyweight Champion of the World David Haye gave a pair of his signed boxing gloves for £2000.
Joe Calzaghe sold two boxing gloves and numerous photos which combined sold for £3,500.
Pino of Giovanni’s, the famous restaurant in Covent Garden, donated a romantic 5-course Italian dinner for two. (He also promised to sing for the winners). This went for £1000.
My very good friend Richard Caring donated two tables for a champagne dinner in both his restaurants – Scotts and the Ivy, which went for a combined £3.000
Famous celebrity hair stylist Adee offered a cut and colour which he personally will do and that fetched £500.
My son Scott Stringfellow created two packages from the racing world – one for the UA GT3 Team and Thruxton racing school, which fetched £2,000 combined.
The loan of a Porsche including a 90-minute expert coaching session at Silverstone donated by Porsche of Barclay Square London which went for £1000.
One John Terry personally signed and framed football strip went for £1,500.
A Tottenham shirt signed by all of the team and framed went for £1,000.
And up popped Brian Fortuna who is one of the top celebrity dance instructors from Strictly Come Dancing and said he would personally give a lesson in Mambo – which went for £300 (bought by my wife – don’t worry I will be keeping an eye on him).
With further anonymous donations the final total came to £38.930.
