Hospice in Harmony international event attracts celebrities
Howard Lake | 21 August 2003 | News
Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Victoria Wood, Julian Lloyd Webber, Tracey Edwards, and other celebrities will support hospices by featuring in public performances to help raise awareness and funds for the hospice and palliative care movement worldwide in September.
They will be joining families, patients, nurses, doctors, poets and musicians in simultaneous events, each called “Hospice in Harmony”, taking place at 7.30 p.m. local time, on Saturday 4 October 2003 in 43 countries. Organisers have called it “the world’s largest simultaneous singing event.”
Most of the celebrities will be involved in the reading of a poem, written by an unknown author from Minsk. The words movingly reflect the dedication and support given by carers at a time of great crisis.
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Victoria Wood will be reading the poem at St Mary’s Junior School, Rectory Gardens, London, N8, during a concert involving the Haringey Big Band and Youth Choir, and other young local performers. The evening will raise funds for Richard House Children’s Hospice, which she officially opened in June 2003.
The poem will be read in different languages and styles across the world. This will be followed by an evening of musical entertainment that is unique to each event, depending on local traditions.
Sir Ian McKellen will be sending a personal message and a reading of the poem to his local Pendleside hospice in Lancashire. The event will take place at The Colne Municipal Hall.
Other celebrities involved in supporting this celebration of the work of hospices include: Lawrence Sail, Aled Jones, Crispian Steel-Perkins, Barbara Dickson, Rosemary Squires and Jeremy White.
The performances take place in churches, concert halls and theatres, village venues and large auditoria in places as diverse as Germany and Sierra Leone as well as the UK.
Kate Meadows, Project Director, Voices for Hospices said: “Voices for Hospices raises much needed awareness and finance for the hospice movement, which relies very heavily on voluntary support for funding in order that it can extend its care free of charge to patients and their loved ones. Importantly this UK-led initiative is helping to support palliative care in other countries like Costa Rica, Russia, Uganda and Kenya.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.