Josh’s festival is £3,500 charity hit

AFESTIVAL held in memory of a little boy whose brave fight against cancer touched the hearts of thousands raised more than £3,500.

JoshFest took place in Whitworth in honour of Joshua McCormack, who died in January 2017, aged five, 15 months after being diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumour.

He had been dubbed a ‘superhero’ by thousands of people around the world who followed his fight with illness on Facebook.

At his funeral hundreds of mourners lined the streets to pay tribute as Darth Vader and a collection of stormtroopers led Josh’s cortege in his home town of Whitworth.

Organised by parents Nicola and Kevin, JoshFest which took place at the Riverside on May 6, the day before Josh’s birthday, featured Whitworth Choir and tribute act The Ambassadors among others.

Dave Sweetmore, club DJ at Rochdale AFC, hosted the evening.

Writing on Facebook Nicola thanked everyone who supported the event.

She said: “Wow. What can I say? Only thank you so much to absolutely everybody who got involved with this year’s JoshFest and made it an outstanding success.”

The money raised will go towards the Jolly Josh charity, a children’s playgroup set up by schoolteacher Carole Kelly, of Wardle, in memory of son Josh, who was just 15-monthsold when he died in August 2017 from a mitochondrial disease and Friends of Rosie, a charity launched almost 25 years ago to fund children’s cancer research following the death of five-year-old Rosie Larkin, from Bowdon, in 1991.

Proceeds from a raffle, cake sale and quiz held on the day will pay for a memorial bench in the cemetery where Josh was laid to rest with the remainder donated to Brave Bears, a charity which gives teddy bears to seriously and terminally ill children.