Thank you to all my loyal clients for attending the grand opening of our new aesthetic clinic. It was an eventful night! We had worked hard to make the clinic look inviting and festive for the big night. With an 8 foot black glittery Christmas tree with tiny blue lights, fresh flowers, bunches of helium filled balloons, the clinic looked a treat. Guests were welcomed with a glass of champagne (or 2, or 3+ for some party animals…) and large silver platters of strawberries and Thornton’s chocolates were passed around. People quickly relaxed and started chatting and having a good look around the clinic, described as a ’suite of rooms’ by one of our clients who was particularly impressed with the general space and décor.

The evening had a serious message to deliver as we wanted to raise as much money as possible for Multiple Sclerosis. My very close friend Hazel works tirelessly as a fund-raiser for MS with a sister who died from the disease and a brother currently in a wheelchair. Hazel runs the Great North Run every year and the first year that she ran, 13 days before the run her sister tragically died. Hazel was more determined than ever to succeed and went on to be featured by the BBC and to raise £4000. She has run the race each year since and our grand opening was just a small effort to contribute something to this charity in support of my friend and all the sufferers from this common but little talked about devastating disease.

We held a raffle in aid of MS and Hazel gave a brief but very moving talk to everyone there and told her story. We asked for donations for the raffle tickets which included prizes of 3 areas of botox (worth £310), a dermal filler including lips (worth £300) and a light chemical peel (worth £80) and a bottle of Moet Champagne! The raffle tickets raised £205. When the raffle was drawn, ironically Hazel won the star prize! Hazel refused to accept the prize as she wanted to raise more money for the charity and decided to auction the ticket off to the highest bidder(despite the protests of a well meaning guest who tried to talk Hazel into accepting the prize!). The ticket raised a further £200 so in total we raised £405!!

I talked to all our guests about how amazing Botox and Dermal Fillers are and how to rejuvenate your skin with a chemical peel.  Then I invited people into my treatment room to watch live demonstrations of botox and dermal fillers including the lips on my 2 lovely models. My first model was having one area of botox and was keen to point out to everyone how much she had appreciated the eyebrow lift the treatment had achieved last time and how it opened out her eyes. She also wanted to let everyone know that I had given her a dermal filler some months ago as recommended by her dermatologist, for an abscess that had been removed on her jawline which had left a large indentation due to tissue loss, and she was delighted with it.

Next was my model for dermal fillers including the lips. Everyone gathered round to watch closely as results could be seen immediately!  Mid way through injecting, a keen observer collapsed due to the heat and had to be attended to by three nurses who happened to be amongst the guests and helped out the room to cool off. It made for a dramatic close to my demonstrations! (The lady who fainted made a full recovery, was at work the next day and has booked her botox treatment this weekend!)

During all the drama an excited guest in the waiting area entertained everyone else and took to opening the bottles of champagne herself!

The final demonstration was given by Yvonne from Jan Marini Skin Research with a glycolic peel and she gained everyone’s interest with the amazing benefits from the Jan Marini range of skincare products.

I have to say it was an extremely entertaining and successful evening and I have clients asking me since to put more evenings on as they enjoyed it so much and were fascinated by the whole evening!

All in all, a big success and £405 raised for Multiple Sclerosis!

A big thank you to everyone who attended!!