CHARITY MATTERS: Masked ball raises £6,000 for schools (From Bicester Advertiser)

CHARITY MATTERS: Masked ball raises £6,000 for schools

2:00pm Monday 29th October 2012 in News

PUPILS at an Oxfordshire school are penning a wish list after a cash boost from a masked ball.

Last month Lesley Gascoigne staged a second ball to raise funds in memory of popular teenager Olivia Jefferies, 18, known as Livi, who died in a car crash in Adderbury.

The former Oxford High School student died in 2011 just days before she was due to take her A-Levels.

Friend Mrs Gascoigne, of Ambrosden, near Bicester, organised the ball at the officers’ mess at Bicester Garrison for 130 people and raised £6,222.

A total of £250 has been donated to special needs school Bardwell in Bicester, and the remainder went to Woodeaton Manor School, a secondary school for pupils who have emotional and social difficulties.

Mrs Gascoigne, whose daughter Jess, 16, has autism, and is a pupil at the school, said: “It was a fabulous evening and I was gobsmacked by how much we raised.

“We chose Woodeaton School because my daughter attends this school and Livi was such a help to Jess when she was her babysitter and befriender.

“We don’t mind what the money is used for — the kids are doing suggestions at the moment.”

So far, more than £16,000 has been raised in Miss Jefferies’ memory.

Last year money was also donated to an appeal to build a state-of-the-art communications classroom at Bardwell Special School in Hendon Place, where Miss Jefferies was a volunteer.

Miss Jefferies, who was planning to read French and Arabic at university, died after her Peugeot 107 and a Ford Focus were in a collision.

Her car left the road and crashed into a ditch. At the time her family, from Twyford, near Banbury, paid tribute to their “amazing” daughter.