Keedie 44

SINGING star Keedie Babb is to open Sunday's Family Fun Day in aid of the Herald Express Ellacombe Fire Fund.

The 26-year-old will open a day packed with entertainment and fun in aid of Michael and Gill Wojak and their son Ricky who were left with nothing after the horrendous fire in which Stephanie Wojak, 15, and Ben McAuliffe, eight, died.

The fun day at the Farmhouse Tavern in Newton Road is being organised by Karen Pearce, who knew Gill and Michael Wojak as a teenager and was one of Gill's bridesmaids.

The Herald Express Ellacombe Fire Fund currently stands at £8,371.

Karen has thanked the landlords of the Farmhouse Tavern, Betty and Bill O'Connor, for letting them use the pub and its car park for Sunday which will run from noon to 11pm and will include an auction, disco and karaoke.

Among the bands playing in the evening will be Living in a Valvestate and a new band Blue Tattoo with members from Contraband Six and Rumur.

The entertainment will include three DJs, karaoke, magicians Whizz Bang and Jungle Jim and a Blues Brothers tribute. Local dance troupe Streetbeat will be doing a display and South Devon Showman Scooter Club will be there with about 50 scooters. Noddy will be also visiting.

Karen said: "The support we have had has been fantastic and we have some wonderful prizes to be won at auction. We are really grateful to Keedie for agreeing to open the event."

Keedie said: "There was no question about it. I have a really close family myself and really felt for the Wojaks. Since I heard about the tragedy I have wanted to help."

There will be two marquees in the pub car park thanks to 20CCT cadet training team from Taunton. TV star Des O' Connor has donated signed memorabilia, there are tickets for the Exeter rugby game against Birmingham, a family ticket for Bygones and Babbacombe Model Village at St Marychurch and for Paignton Zoo, a meat hamper and free car valeting.

The gifts donated to the raffle and auction include a two first class tickets worth £600 from First Great Western, Peter Andre personalised signed picture, a year's membership of Winners 2000 gym, Osborne Hotel health club membership, an overnight stay at the Cary Arms at Babbacombe, tickets for Babbacombe Theatre, meals donated by the Coach House Babbacombe and Bay Brassiere at the Riviera International Centre and driving lessons with First Gear. Bids can be taken during the day.

Torquay United players have already donated a signed T-shirt and football, and some of the players will be attending.

For more details see Karen's Facebook page or you can email her on kazzy4u@hotmail.co.uk, phone her on 01803 612441 or 07717 139447.

THE joint was jumping in Torquay last night as hundreds of well wishers and performers gathered at the Farmhouse Tavern to help the Herald Express Ellacombe Fire Fund reach the £10,000 mark.

Organiser Karen Pearce was confident the figure would be reached by the end of last night's special charity fun day in memory of fire victims Stephanie Wojak and Ben McAuliffe whose funeral service was on Friday.

The figure was looking more and more likely when Torquay United boosted the running total of nearly £8,800 with £537 collected from a pitch collection during the Gulls' 2-0 Saturday home defeat at Plainmoor to Rotherham.

Fun day organiser Karen Pearce said as the event reached its climax: "It was an amazing sum from Plainmoor which has helped us enormously. We are aiming to reach £10,000, which would be fantastic. Everyone has been brilliant."

She estimated about 700 people attended the event.

Home-spun singing star Keedie Babb helped get the show off to a glittering celebrity start with a moving rendition of You'll Never walk Alone.

Keedie also donated some of her CDs to be sold at the auction later on in the evening.

Among those helping things along at the start of the extravaganza were Torbay's Got Talent finalist Millie Day, aged 10, magicians Wizz Bang, acoustic duo Scape and the cast of Westlands School's production of Hairspray.

The climax of the evening was the release of two white helium-filled balloons, one for Stephanie and the other for Ben, which floated up into the night sky to the strains of Michael Jackson's You're Not Alone, sung by the finalists of the X Factor, one of Stephanie's favourite TV shows.