The fundraising flautist

Unfortunately, due to poor weather, I had to postpone the March busk in Seahouses for the Seahouses Development Trust.

The great news is that due to the generosity of friends and family I was today able to donate £150 to Seahouses Development Trust so they can purchase some new books for their library. I visited them last week and was very impressed with the facilities they offer their local community.

I am rearranging the Seahouses busk for the summer and will update the busking diary when I have a new date.

The day of busk three started with getting up for a 7.10am interview on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. They called me just before 7.00am and I could hear them discussing on air before I started my interview. They were very concerned I’d be the ‘freezing flautist’ with it being cold in Histon. You can listen from 1:09:02.

Luckily, BBC Cambridgeshire’s prediction was not correct as we pitched up in a sun trap outside Tesco, which made busking for an hour really quite enjoyable. This time we were raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society as my grandad lived in Histon and suffered from dementia at the end of his life. He was very supportive of my music-making, buying me my first flute, coming to concerts and always sharing his encouragement. He also enjoyed Andre Rieu’s love for music.

The people of Histon were very generous; we discovered my busk had even been announced at the local WI meeting! In just an hour we raised £205, which surpassed all of my expectations.

So, what’s next? At the end of March I’ll be in Northumberland raising money to get more books for the Seahouses Development Trust. I’m also pleased to announce that I’ll be at Market Bosworth Farmers’ Market on 27 May, raising money for Cardiomyopathy UK, helping my neighbour, Chris.

Date: 28 January 2018
Supporting: Leicester Royal Infirmary’s neonatal unit (Leicester Hospitals Charity)

With accompaniment from a pneumatic drill, beautiful blue skies and sunshine busk number two was completed in Leicester city centre.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was born eleven weeks premature at Leicester Royal Infirmary, so the neonatal unit was an obvious choice to fundraise for.

A photographer from the Leicester Mercury also came to take photos and a video, so I’ll be keeping an eye out to see where those end up.

In total £70.87 was raised in just an hour – thank you people of Leicester.

If you missed me today, I’ll be in Market Harborough on 14 April and Queens Road, Leicester on 28 July. Keep up to date by following my busking diary. 

Date: 30 December 2017
Supporting: Sidmouth Lifeboat – Sidmouth, Devon

Sidmouth has always held many fond memories for me having gone on holiday there many times when I was a child. Although I had planned to start my busking challenge in 2018 I had the opportunity to go to Sidmouth in December 2017 and thought I would start it early.

I chose to support Sidmouth Lifeboat – a self-funded, independent lifeboat station, which does not belong to the RNLI. It is on service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with everyone involved being volunteers. They put their lives at risk to save others.

What is great about busking, aside from the making music and raising money for charity, is the people you meet. This time it included a lady with a giant poodle mix breed dog who said that her favourite thing about the dog was how it made everyone smile. There was a toddler who just wanted to dance to the music. And there were the people who donated and only after asked what I was collecting for.

I was delighted to raise over £150 for Sidmouth Lifeboat. I was lucky to be interviewed for a piece in the Sidmouth Herald, the local paper, and lots of people recognised me from that. If you would like to support Sidmouth Lifeboat’s work, then visit their website to donate.