Isomissedmyweesisin travelyear
My sister Siobhan (or Shivvy as my family all call her) has just returned from a year and a half of adventuring in East Asia and New Zealand.
I missed her so much and it’s brilliant to have her home, so when I was invited by my lovely friends at the Edinburgh Playhouse to the press night of ‘Billy Elliot’ the musical, I took Siobhan along as my guest and we were absolutely blown away.
The cast were outstanding. In particular, the young boy playing Billy.
The title role in this show would be demanding for any performer but for a young boy to hold a show like that, I was just in complete awe.
Special mention must also go to the other young actor playing Michael, who had a show stopping number in act one that brought the house down.
I’ve had the honour of performing on the Playhouse stage and to watch these young performers command an audience of three thousand in the largest theatre in the UK brought a tear to my eye.
Huge congratulations to the entire cast and crew of Billy Elliot. I hope you have an amazing run here in Scotland and many thanks as ever to Sarah from the Edinburgh Playhouse for inviting me along.
You may have heard the very sad news this summer that the UK Charity, CLIC Sargent is closing the Malcolm Sargent House in Prestwick. My cousin Rhona Devlin and a team of six other volunteers have formed a committee, going by the nickname of the M7, to make an emotional drive to stop this from happening.
They battled endlessly alongside the community but sadly on July 27 the final decision to close the house was announced.
The committee immediately changed strategy from #SAVEMSH to #BUYMSH.
They made every effort to buy the house but could not feasibly pay the price requested from CLIC Sargent of £1.75 million, therefore after serious negotiations it was decided to build a new provision for children, young people and their families suffering with cancer and life altering illnesses. The other committee members have been working around the clock. They have elected a crucial board of trustees; each with the pertinent set of skills to drive this appeal forward. They have launched a new website and business plan/funding model, gained a fast growing social media following on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep the community updated on fundraising events and progress and they have also set up JustGiving online for donations and numerous offline donation points throughout Ayrshire.
Rhona said: “Malcom Sargent house is the only one of its kind in the UK.
“It provides respite not just for terminally ill children and their families but they also host bereavement weeks for parents, siblings and grandparents of children who have sadly lost their battle with terminal illness.
“The support the house provides to the families is of vital importance. We cannot allow this to be taken away from them. Fundraising will be the key to our success – we would encourage people to donate what they can and the team welcome more corporate pledgers to come forward as ambassadors and friends of MSH. We only have one shot at this - lets do it.”
This is a hugely important cause, even for people who live outside Ayrshire. For more information please visit: www.buymsh.com, to make a donation visit: www. justgiving.com/buy-msh or text BMSH99 £10 to 70070. Or to get in touch with the committee email buymsh@ gmail.com or call 0791 7577463.
These next few months are going to be a very busy time for me with River City, Gary: Tank Commander at the SSE Hydro and the Eastwood Theatre pantomime. Because of this my column will appear once every month until the new year with plenty of chat!