It was a long day and a lot of work but the results of the Pasta Dinner Fundraiser for the Canadian Liver Foundation held Sunday at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Tilbury left its key organizer and local spokesperson overjoyed by its success.

“When you add in the results from our 50/50 draw, we raised $10,601.50,” said Ashley Bellemore, still sounding somewhat amazed. “I’m really impressed. It was so nice to see all the support.”

The soft-spoken daughter of Dave and Lynn Bellemore of Tilbury, Ashley has been battling autoimmune hepatitis - a liver disease which causes the body's immune system to attack liver cells, since  the age of eight. Ashley kept her fight private until this past August due the the stigma often attached with liver disease. The first local event of it kind for the Liver Foundation, Bellemore agreed that its quite likely her story helped raise awareness for the need to support liver disease research.

“Its always different when you know someone who has the disease,” Bellemore said. “There were a few people with liver diseases who came up to me Sunday to say how happy they were I came forward.”

Tilbury Auto Mall owners Tom Mayhew, Vince Lally and Craig Lanoue, who initially provided a $500 sponsorship to help Ashley with the expenses related to preparing for the event, turned out Sunday with an additional $1,000 raised by employees at the four dealerships through “Jean Fridays”. Employees paid $5 each Friday in April in order to wear jeans to work with all the proceeds going toward the second donation.