Charities
I created my third production ‘Florence’ in 2020, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and the year designated by the World Health Organisation as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. During the summer, I was approached by a Trustee of the Helen Loewenstein Memorial Trust to play at a festival in support of the charity. I was incredibly moved by Helen Loewenstein’s story and by the charity’s aim to support initial midwifery training in Liberia. I’ve had the pleasure to meet Helen’s parents who set up this charity in memory of their inspirational, passionate daughter and I look forward to supporting the charity further in future.
The Heshima Project is run by EdUKaid to support and empower women and girls living in Tanzania to overcome barriers to education due to poor sanitation. Heshima is a Swahili word meaning dignity. Through my husband Tim’s connections to Tanzania, I’ve been lucky to visit the country a few times and have met some of the girls supported through this project.
The Trust for Overseas Aid and Development (TOAD for short) is a charity I have been committed to supporting through concerts and music activities. The forest LIVE concert series (below) donated profits from sales of hot meals at concerts to TOAD.
In August 2015 I released a download single ‘Home Lads Home’ with Dorset folk duo Ninebarrow. The single was recorded locally and all costs have been met by the artists so that all proceeds go directly to Wiltshire based charity Help for Heroes.
forest LIVE
I set up forest LIVE in 2012 to bring quality live music from touring artists to my rural home town. Together with Tim, I developed a concert series providing opportunities to local musicians to support folk legends Martin Carthy, Phil Beer, John Tams, Jim Moray and Megson as well as (then!) emerging artists Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin, Paper Aeroplanes, O’Hooley & Tidow and Ninebarrow.