Making an impression at Cliveden - Autistica Charity Lunch
Cliveden House - 26th April 2012
The room was full of laughter at our 6th Cliveden Lunch in April with the highly entertaining and effervescent Rory Bremner - who ran effortlessly through his best impressions and proceeded to speak with honesty about ADHD - why he self-diagnosed and how he copes with it in his life. Our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves - describing it as the ‘best Cliveden lunch yet’. It may have been grey and cold outside this year, but our guests started the day enjoying a glass of sparkling Laurent-Perrier champagne in the stunning French Dining Room and then sitting down to a really delicious lunch in the Terrace Dining Room. Our thanks have to go to Cliveden’s Executive Head Chef, Carlos Martinez, who created such a stunning meal.
We focused on one important piece of research that we are fully committed to, the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings - the study of baby siblings of children diagnosed with autism to identify very early sings of autism and develop early interventions. We asked our guests to help us fund the costs for a family to take their baby to BASIS for one day, this was very successful and will be continued at our lunch at Hambleton Hall on 17th May.
Lorna Hall (left), sister to Luke gave the most eloquent and moving speech about life with her brother - there was not a dry eye in the house! If you would like to read Lorna’s speech, she has very kindly given us permission.
We would like to thank NEXT PLC, who is our sponsor this year - their contribution and fantastic auction prizes helped us make the day the success that it always is.
We would like to say the warmest thank you to each and every one of our guests for their fabulous on-going support. It really was heart warming to see so many familiar faces and exciting to meet new friends as well. We are delighted to report that so far, thanks to date to our guests, NEXT PLC, Laurent Perrier, Cliveden and all our sponsors, we have raised just over £12,000 from the day.
Thanks also must go to the volunteers - Gerda Rattray, Victoria Sanvitale, Nikki Reed and Siomha Cunniffe.
Do listen to Rory Bremner speak on Radio Berkshire on 26th April - just prior to the Cliveden lunch - he is on the Andrew Peach Show from 1.16.43
Please let your friends know that you liked the Cliveden Lunch
