Pictured with tickets for the Julia’s House Winter Ball are the charity’s corporate fundraiser Ged Montgomery (left) and Terri Hayes-Pugh of Cotswold Homes Ltd which is sponsoring the event.

Local housebuilder Cotswold Homes Ltd has stepped in to sponsor next month’s Winter Ball at Wellington Barn in the village of Calstone near Calne, a major fundraising event organised by Wiltshire’s only children’s hospice, Julia’s House in Devizes.

The black-tie event follows the success of last year’s ball, a sell-out event attended by 200 people.

In addition to a four-course dinner and dancing to music by the Wiltshire-based pop/rock band Echo, entertainment will be provided by the singer and actress Cassidy Janson who this year appeared with Michael Ball in the West End production of Chess at the London Coliseum.

Julia’s House opened in Devizes last year in response to growing demand for the services provided by the group’s first hospice established in Corfe Mullen, Dorset 15 years ago.

It was named after Julia Perks, a paediatric nurse whose dream was to develop a support network for families struggling to care for a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition without any help or respite.

Welcoming Cotswold Homes’ sponsorship of the Winter Ball, Julia’s House corporate fundraiser Ged Montgomery said: ‘We are delighted and extremely grateful to have the support of Cotswold Homes for this very special event. Our nurses and carers can only continue to throw a lifeline to families thanks to the generosity of the local community.’

The two hospices, which together receive only six per cent of their income from Government funding, need to raise £7.5 million annually to provide their services across the two counties this year.

Julia’s House currently supports more than 60 Wiltshire families providing care at its hospice in Devizes and in family homes across the county.

‘We are there for the whole family, not just the child,’ comments Ged.