FSHD Chocolate Ball

Chocolate, couture and China are set to join forces in the name of charity when the fourth annual -FSHD Chocolate Ball' hits Sydney on the 29th of June.

The event will be hosted by celebrity landscape gardener Jamie Durie OAM, who will be joined by award-winning chef Luke Mangan and some of fashion's biggest personalities to raise funds for research into Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy – a debilitative form of muscular dystrophy.

'Building on the success of previous years, the 2013 Ball will incorporate both contemporary and traditional Chinese elements into menu, theming, entertainment and fundraising initiatives," said Director of FSHD Global Research Foundation, Natalie Moss.

'The event will feature Chinese lion dancers, plate spinners, acrobatics and Kung-Fu performances, as well as many other entertainment elements that will no doubt captivate and delight guests.

'In making the Ball Chinese-themed, we wanted to create something new, dynamic and vibrant as well as solidify our connections with Australia's Chinese community – many members of which have shown the FSHD Global Research Foundation great support over the past five-and-a-half years."

The Ball will see Luke Mangan serve a chocolate and Chinese infused menu created especially for the event's guests. The night will also play host to the third Australian Chocolate Couture Awards, offering emerging designers the opportunity to create an outfit inspired by the Ball's themes of chocolate and China, and to gain sough-after industry exposure via a live catwalk, which will be supported by Dinosaur Designs, Harvey House Productions and strong.HOUSE.style.

Funds raised from the Ball will go towards the FSHD Global Research Foundation's quest to find a treatment and cure for Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy, or FSHD, a common form of muscular dystrophy that causes progressive and irreversible weakness and wasting of the muscles in the body.

'Last year's Ball raised over $500,000 and we are certainly aiming to move beyond that figure in 2013," continued Natalie Moss.

'As in previous years, the event has sold-out well ahead of time, and we hope that attendees, both new and old, donate generously and continue to raise awareness about FSHD – a disease that affects hundreds of thousands of people around the world," concluded Natalie Moss.

Since October 2007, the FSHD Global Research Foundation has funded seventeen medical research projects in the USA, Netherlands, France, Italy, Belgium and Australia, offering hope to thousands of FSHD sufferers and their families around the world.