Russian Midsummer Gala to Fight Cancer

Evgeny Lebedev transformed his house in Hampton Court into a Russian church, with a bell tower and the roof of the temporary dining room based on that in St Basil’s Cathedral, last June. He and President Mikhail Gorbachev were the hosts that evening in aid of the Raisa Gorbechev Foundation, which fights childhood cancer.  

The Gala Committee includes Hugh Grant, David Hockney, Madonna and Baroness Thatcher. The most coveted auction prize was dinner with the Man Who Changed the World.  Last year private equity investor Cyrus Vandrevala bid £75,000 for it and joined President Gorbachev with his family in Moscow; the previous year it went to Hugh Grant, and before that the mobile phone tycoon John Caudwell.  

The well-known philanthropist an Indian investor, Cyrus Vandrevala, is also a patron of The Elephant Family Foundation that at the beginning of the season organized a parade with tons of elephant sculptures. Four of these life-size sculptures were sponsored by him and his wife.