An emotional but hugely enjoyable evening organised by four young women raised £11,500 for Help for Heroes at the Chase Hotel last Saturday.

Charlotte Reynolds, 24, had the original idea to hold a ball to raise money for soldiers wounded while on service in Iraq and Afghanistan. She hoped to raise several thousand pounds and, together with her friends, Jess Teague, Jemma Heath and Jessica Sherwood, pulled off her plan with spectacular results.

As well as ticket sales and a raffle large sums of money were bid for items in the auction, including £700 for a brass artillery cartridge which was fired during Operation Herrick 6 in Helmand Province in 2007. Maria Oates and Andy Gooding from the King Charles made the successful bid and said they would be proud to display the cartridge and would also have it engraved in memory of Steven Sherwood who was killed on service in Afghanistan.

Although Help for Heroes raises money to support members of the armed forces wounded in the service of their country, the event was held in memory of four soldiers from the area, Rifleman Jamie Gunn, Corporal Daniel Nield, Lance Corporal Steven Sherwood and Lance Corporal Paul Upton. Families and friends of the four young men were at the ball, and despite sometimes being overcome by thoughts of their lost loved ones, they all agreed that the ball had been a fabulous idea and a wonderful evening. Several soldiers from 1st Battalion The Rifles were at the event and made impromptu speeches in memory of their comrades.

Charlotte thanked her friends for their help organising the event as well as Tarquin Shaw-Young, the auctioneer who encouraged such generous bidding. Charlotte was also very grateful to the Chase Hotel, Likes Florist, the band, SwiTch, rdpphotography, Multiprint, the Ross Gazette and the Monmouthshire Beacon and everyone else who helped her.

She said: "In August the figure for those wounded in Afghanistan was 800 and in Iraq 348 had been injured, while I was planning the ball the figures kept rising which shows how much help is needed and I know the money we have raised will be put to good use."