Chain of Hope, the children’s heart charity Sir Magdi Yacoub founded in 1995, held its annual Gala Ball at the Natural History Museum in November 2025, hosted by Rory Bremner.
Rory Bremner hosted the annual Chain of Hope Gala Ball at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington on Friday 14 November 2025. Blue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub founded the charity in the United Kingdom in 1995, prompted by and modelled on its French partner, La Chaîne de l’Espoir.
One child in every hundred is born with a heart defect, which the developed world corrects as a matter of routine. Chain of Hope flies children to hospitals in its international network and sends volunteer teams to build services in their countries.
That work has left cardiac infrastructure in Ethiopia, Egypt, Jamaica, Uganda, El Salvador and Mozambique. The Aswan Heart Centre began in 2009 with a $500,000 grant from the charity and now treats more than 500 patients a year.
The chief executive, Emma Scanlan, spoke about a year spent evacuating children with heart disease from Gaza. Among them was Jamal, a small boy with an extremely complex heart condition, brought out with the World Health Organisation and other organisations.
Cherine Helmy and Maria Sukkar co-chaired the committee, and Lord Jeffrey Archer took the live auction.