Around HUF 1.5 million was raised at the third annual Burns Supper in Budapest on Saturday, 22 January 2000.

The money, made through a contribution from the ticket price, a raffle and an auction, will go to the Semmelweis University Hospital’s second paediatrics department.

Last year an operating table was purchased through the fund raising efforts of the ball. This year the plan is to replace 30-year-old operating equipment and buy new theatre furniture.

Jock McKenzie, the ball organizer for the Hungarian-Scottish Society, said while delighted people had enjoyed themselves so much, he was disappointed not to have raised more, particularly as tickets (which included as much food and drink as you could manage) only cost HUF 6,000.

(A version of this article first appeared in The Budapest Sun in early 2000)