Girls Aloud to reunite to host fundraising ball in memory of Sarah Harding

Girls Aloud will come together next month to host a fundraising gala in honour of their bandmate Sarah Harding, who died a year ago from breast cancer.

The Primrose Ball will be held in London on 8 October, with guests including It’s A Sin star Olly Alexander performing to raise money for the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK, as part of the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal.

Harding was 39 when she died last September. Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Cheryl will front the event alongside the broadcasters Fearne Cotton and Johnny Gould.

Read more: Sarah Harding’s life in pictures

Chrissie Hynde, of the Pretenders and the Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson are also on the bill.

The ball was set up at the request of Harding, and named after the Girls Aloud track The Promise, in which she sings: “Here I am, walking primrose”.

The band said in a statement: “We are so grateful to The Londoner for hosting the Primrose Ball at their wonderful hotel.

“Charles Oak, hotel director of The Londoner, and Sarah had a very special bond, and holding her gala evening there will make the night even more special.

“Our hope is to raise a huge amount of money that will hopefully prevent other people finding themselves in the same terrifying situation Sarah found herself in.”

The group’s members took part in a Race For Life in Harding’s honour in July.

The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal wants to fund research to identify new ways to predict which young women, with no family history of breast cancer, are likely to develop the disease, ensuring people can be identified earlier when treatment is more likely to be successful.