Columnist Jeanette Hughes is a member of Concert Signers, a Warrington group that provides sign language interpretation at gigs while raising deaf awareness. But the Penketh resident also runs the annual ‘Rock and Roll Auction’ where musicians and celebrities donate items from their life for charity as she explains below

Warrington Guardian:

IT’S almost auction time again.

I created the ‘Rock and Roll Auction for Deaf Awareness’ four years ago and it has gone on from strength to strength to raise money for Warrington’s deaf community.

It takes around nine months of planning leading up to the day of the auction, which always takes place in November.

Everyone works for free to put on this fantastic auction, including myself and assistants, artists and their teams, media and the auction house team so every penny raised goes to the deaf community.

It is hard work, but we have lots of fun organising the auction and working with the artists and everyone and it is so rewarding to raise funds needed for books, equipment, travel, in fact anything that improves the life of a deaf or hard of hearing person.

Last year I’m very proud that the money raised went some way towards refurbishing and decorating Warrington Deaf Centre’s social room. I’m also very pleased at how much the artists involved have taken the Rock and Roll Auction for Deaf Awareness to their hearts.

Many having their own personal reasons such as having a family member who is deaf or hard of hearing while others simply recognise how important it is to raise deaf awareness.

Many of the artists involved, I am proud to say, have donated every year since I started the auction, which is amazing .

Each year we try to have a theme for the auction.

In year one we had ‘hats’, in year two we had ‘shades’ and last year we had ‘signed scripts and lyrics’ and this year it’s ‘woolly jumpers and waistcoats’.

Why not?!

This year we have some beautiful waistcoats from Barrie Gibb, Annie Lennox, Michael McDonald, Eric Clapton.

We also have Boy George, Paul Arthurs of Oasis, Johnny Marr and many others donating.

We don’t only have musicians donating, we have had Hollywood A-listers Nicole Kidman, George Clooney and Colin Farrell to name a few.

We have also had support from explorer Ranulph Fiennes who this year has donated a fleece that he wore at both the North and South Pole. It’s a bit ‘weathered’ but I guess it would be with that history!

Over the years we have had items donated from Peter Gabriel, Mike Batt, Russell Crowe, Richard Branson, Bob Geldof, Steve Hackett, Yoko Ono, Joanna Lumley, U2, Coldplay, Warrington’s own Dean Fairhurst of Slydigs, will.i.am, Kiss, and many more artists generously donating to deaf awareness.

We’ve also had donations from Michael Flatley, Phoenix Nights comedian Dave Spikey, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and the ABBA Museum.

A real mixture of artists have happily donated to the auction.

Again this year we are very proud that Omega Auctions of Newton has generously donated its services.

Omega has such a brilliant friendly team who generously do so much for us. The auction this year is on Tuesday, November 26, and it is live and online on the day.

It is fascinating watching the lots on auction day and fingers crossed for another great result this year.

More information about the Rock and Roll Auction for Deaf Awareness can be found on Twitter at @AuctionDeaf, on Instagram by searching for RocknRoll Auction for Deaf Awareness and at omegaauctions.co.uk