Whitby goes all out to raise more than £11,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance

The initiative followed the death of Whitby postman Tony Ralph after colleagues, family and friends wanted to recognise the efforts of the air ambulance in his memory.

A number of events took place – a stall at Whitby’s Christmas market run by retired postman Martin Hart, his wife Sue and others got the ball rolling, selling memorabilia. But Martin felt more could be done and Barry Brown of Fortunes Kippers volunteered to help, along with his daughter Bethany Brown with Kate and Matt Sharp. Approaches to Whitby Pavilion and others soon resulted in ideas for a concert night and other events.

Secondly, a dinner at Hadley’s Restaurant opened a week of fundraising in Whitby with a special fish and chip dinner, as food suppliers donated fish and potatoes .

Staff gave up their time for free to cook and serve food and drinks to the diners. The evening raised more than £1,000 and a raffle was held at the main event on March 8 at the Whitby Pavilion, which saw Showaddywaddy perform to a full house - many revellers dressed in period dress and danced to recreate the era.

The evening kicked off with live music from Whitby support act Five Divide, playing superb renditions of Cliff Richard and The Shadows hits and many others which got the crowd up and dancing.

A raffle with fantastic prizes and a tombola, followed by a charity auction by Robert Smith of Richardson and Smith Auctioneers, of holidays, pictures from local artists, a motoring experience, tea for three at the Houses of Parliament in London and even a surfboard raised more than £8,000 from a fun-packed week and evening.