LONDON, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In a setting befitting a futuristic film, members of London's energy community gathered Thursday night for the annual Platts-sponsored Energy Dinner in support of WellChild, the U.K. national organisation for sick children and one of patron Prince Harry's six favourite charities. The dinner raised approximately £130,000* in support of WellChild.

"We'd like to thank the energy industry for coming out in force last night and across the years to the Energy Dinner in support of this important charity," said Sarah Cottle, editorial director of power for Europe and Asia at Platts, the energy information arm of The McGraw-Hill Companies and Dinner sponsor since 2004. "We're proud to announce that monies raised during the event's first decade total nearly £1.5 million, providing much needed support to WellChild and the children and families it helps."

Each year the aim is to make the dinner an uplifting, out-of-this world experience, and this year's theme transported guests to future. The Intercontinental Park Lane ballroom was cloaked in black and white, with bright stars and green lasers adding to the evening's mystique. Greeters dressed as Jedi knights welcomed the approximately 500 guests, including patrons from such companies as Barclays Capital, Centrica, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Ernst & Young, HETCO, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and RWE, among others.

All proceeds from the Energy Dinner will support WellChild's wide-ranging initiatives, including: research; its specialist WellChild Nursing teams that care for children with complex care needs in and out of hospital; and the WellChild Helping Hands endeavor, a program of volunteers that tackles home re-design development projects necessary to facilitate any special needs of critically-ill children returning home from hospital.

"We are delighted that WellChild is again the beneficiary charity of the Energy Dinner. The fundraising at the event over the years has been tremendous and continues to give us an amazing boost in our work to help and support seriously ill children across the U.K. We would like to thank everyone involved in the Energy Dinner," said WellChild Chief Executive Colin Dyer.

To help sick children and their families as they deal with the consequences of serious and complex illness, WellChild focuses its efforts on three key areas - care, support and research. The charity has invested more than £20 million in ground-breaking children's health research projects.

In March 2007, Prince Harry became the first royal patron of WellChild and has shown a personal commitment to helping WellChild improve opportunities for seriously ill children and young people. To learn more about Price Harry's WellChild patronage and the organisation, visit www.wellchild.org.uk.

*Final donation totals, including those contributed at the silent auction, are still pending.

About WellChild: WellChild's commitment is that every child in the UK, no matter what their situation, location or diagnosis, should have the very best possible quality of care. The charity, which has Prince Harry as its Patron, funds a unique team of WellChild Children's Nurses who play an essential role for families across the UK. Those WellChild Nurses help to ensure that children can be cared for at home rather than in hospital wherever possible and make sure that families are able to meet the needs of these young people. In addition, WellChild funds a number of other projects designed to provide support to families. This includes the charity's unique Helping Hands scheme which tackles individual home development projects - helping seriously ill children, young people and their families in truly practical ways. WellChild also has a successful history of funding important and ground-breaking research aimed at improving treatment and care for children and young people. WellChild's programmes have helped many thousands of children and families and they are determined to reach many thousands more. www.wellchild.org.uk

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts' coverage of the biofuels, carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, metals, petrochemical, shipping and sugar markets. A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies: The McGraw-Hill Companies, to be renamed McGraw Hill Financial (subject to shareholder approval), is a powerhouse in credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics for the global capital and commodity markets. Leading brands include: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts, CRISIL, J.D. Power and Associates, McGraw-Hill Construction and Aviation Week. The Company has approximately 17,000 employees in 27 countries. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com.

SOURCE Platts

SOURCE: Platts