Warwick hairdresser honours memory of tragic tot with masquerade ball fundraiser

Big-hearted Warwick hairdresser Charlotte Williams is organising a grand charity masquerade ball to raise money for Zoe’s Place baby hospice.
Remembering TedRemembering Ted
Remembering Ted

The event has been inspired by little Ted Ellard, the son of her friends Natalie and Kev, who died just after his first birthday last summer and spent time at the hospice.

Taking place on Saturday April 13, at Chesford Grange, it is the fifth charity ball Leamington native Charlotte has hosted. She has also tackled a variety of intrepid challenges including trekking the high Atlas Mountains and the Grand Canyon, abseiling and running a marathon.

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The 28-year-old who runs a home-based salon service from her mum’s house at Warwick Gates, said: “Having worked in a hairdressing salon, Just Ian, from the age of 13, I set up The Vanity Box in 2011 at age 20. As a hairdresser I am lucky enough to know so many people and decided to use this to build the perfect platform to fundraise. With the support of friends, family and we have so far raised just short of £19,000 for several charities close to my heart including CLIC Sargent, Bliss, BKIT, Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research and Myton Hospice.

“This year I have chosen to support Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice in memory of Ted Ellard. Ted’s parents Natalie and Kev Ellard are clients and friends of mine and Zoe’s place helped them have such special time with Ted at the end of his short precious life.”

Ted was born three months prematurely in May 2017 weighing a tiny 1lb 9.5oz. He wasn’t breathing when he was born and was taken straight to the neonatal intensive care unit where he was stabilised and spent the next four months. Having chronic lung disease he went home on permanent oxygen.

At nearly seven months old after spending three months at home Ted was diagnosed with a rare incurable heart condition called pulmonary vein stenosis, a condition causing the veins going to his heart to narrow and eventually close. Despite numerous heart surgeries and initial signs of recovery Ted sadly died last June.

Visit www.justgiving.com/thevanitybox2019 to donate to the cause.