A LLANELLI ladies' choir is hosting a glamorous ball to help reach the goal of raising £100,000 for charities over 16 years.

Members of Lleisiau'r Llan are inviting the public to an event at the Stradey Park Hotel on Friday, which it is hoped will boost their fundraising efforts to the milestone total.

BBC news presenter Huw Edwards will be the special guest of the evening, and entertainment will be provided by the Mojo soul band.

Conductor Jill Evans said: "The ball is always an enjoyable social evening, and we hope members of the public will join us to raise funds for local charities.

"Hopefully with the support from this ball we will have raised £100,000 over the past 16 years. We didn't think when we started the choir that we would still be going 16 years on, having raised that much money for charity.

"It was initially more of a social thing, and after the first concert it just snowballed."

There will be a raffle and an auction on the night, with prizes including signed Swansea City football shirts, a signed Scarlets rugby shirt, a bracelet by Mari Thomas, a bracelet donated by Alex Jones and a night at the Stradey Park Hotel.

The choir hosts a ball every other year, but raises the majority of funds for charities through regular concerts.

"Every penny from the ticket sales goes to our charities — we pay all the costs to make sure we can raise as much as possible for charity," Jill said.

"We support various local charities, but we have raised money mainly for Ty Bryngwyn Hospice and the breast care unit at Prince Philip Hospital.

"We are a ladies' choir, and a number of our members have been affected by cancer in the past, so we thought it was only right to support the unit.

"And we have raised funds for the hospice because they rely on the generosity of the public just to keep going.

"We would like to thank Janet Westcott, who works at Barclays Bank, for helping us with the pound-for-pound scheme, as well as Julie Humphreys at Lloyds and Huw, Glunog and Alan Fewster for all their support."

Tickets for the ball cost £30 and can be bought by calling Anna Samuel on 07792 897288.