THE tenth A Ball for Mary saw more than 250 people enjoy an evening which marked a remarkable milestone in the story that has seen so many people benefit from the brilliant fundraising that has gone on since 2010.

There were a few excellent examples of the Mary Leishman Foundation Motto 'Encourage Potential and Ease Distress,' at last Saturday's event.

The Kelty lady, who was a star herself in many of the shows put on by Kelty Musical Association over a spell of four decades before illness claimed her, would have been delighted to hear how the Foundation had made a real difference to people over the past year.

Jim Leishman was delighted to welcome the packed hall to the event and thanked everyone who had backed the Foundation over the past year.

Among the people who have made huge strides through the support of the Foundation has been Crosshill woman Marguerite Henderson.

Marguerite developed Sepsis through the smallest of cuts this time last year and within a short time was fighting for her life as the Sepsis poison built up.

The medics had to remove both her legs and an arm to control the condition but their work turned things around for Marguerite who showed tremendous battling spirit to come back from the terrible set-backs that the illness caused and the Foundation were able to fund a really advanced powered wheelchair which has made an amazing difference to her life.

Chloe Dickson, from Glenrothes, has shown amazing talent as a fencer and was given assistance by the Foundation to prepare and take park in the Commonwealth Games foil event in Canberra, Down Under last year, and she returned with three gold medals.

Meanwhile Liam Forrest was showing immense potential as an opera singer and the Dunfermline youngster is now heading to become a real star thanks to support from the Foundation and during the Ball he gave those present a real idea of how good he is with three songs.

The staff of the Times and Dunfermline Press were delighted to be at the event and through Jim Payne's photographs we capture the way things went with entertainment from The Kilts and The Soul Kings.

The Trustees of the Foundation said in the programme for the Ball: "2018 was a busy year for us and we still find the same amount of support and encouragement from many people which is very heart warming and we thank everyone for that."