Friday 2 February
7pm - 8.30pm
Brecon Castle Hotel
The Alive & Kickin‘ Community Choir Brecon is proud to announce the official release of its Charity Single ‘Lay Your Head On Me’ on Friday the 2nd of February 2018 at the Castle Of Brecon Hotel. Join them from 7pm to hear the song and see the video!
For more information please contact:
Marianne Auer, Communications Officer for the Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir Brecon Phone: 07710 807 444, Email: marianne@aliveandkickinchoir.co.uk
The song was written for Harrison's Fund a charity aiming to fund pioneering research into a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is the most common fatal genetic disorder in children and affects 1 in every 3600 births.
It all began with a community choir from Brecon…
… and culminated in a beautiful song, ‘Lay Your Head On Me’, written especially by the choir leader, singer and songwriter Tanya Walker, for the charity Harrison’s Fund. All the proceeds of the sale of the single will go to the charity.
The story behind the song
In 2014 two brothers, Oskar and Theo, then 3 and 1 years old, were diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, an incurable genetic disorder that affects children around the world. The diagnosis means that the two boys probably will die in their late teens or early twenties. Their aunt, Ros Sandhu, who at the time was a member of the Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir Brecon, told the choir leader Tanya Walker about the two little boys. The choir felt that they wanted to do something to help. Tanya came up with the idea of writing a song for Harrison’s Fund and donating all the sales proceeds to the Fund. It wasn’t an easy task, composing a song about such a sensitive subject but after a few months Tanya had written the perfect piece. In the following months the choir raised the funds to record it, organising raffles, quiz nights and a pedalthon through Scotland. The result is a powerful and life affirming song. It tells the story of a young man who, on becoming a father, realises what love really is and how deep and unconditional it can be. He discovers that his son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy but tells him “Lay your head on me, I am here for you. We don’t have much time, but we will make the most of the now.”
Alex Smith, founder of Harrison’s Fund and dad to Harrison said: “We are so grateful to Tanya and the choir for their support. The song is so beautifully written and encapsulates what it is like to be a parent of a child with Duchenne and the emotions you go through. There have been a number of breakthroughs over the past year in treatments into Duchenne but we still have a long way to go until we find a cure and eradicate this awful disease once and for all. It’s wonderful that Tanya and the choir want to help us in this mission.”
The song has been available as a pre-release MP3 download since 18th of November 2017 on Bandcamp: https://song4harrisons.bandcamp.com
The video will be on YouTube from the 2nd of February.
Direct donations to Harrison’s Fund can be made on: https://giving.harrisonsfund.com/pf/Song4Harrisons
Follow us on Facebook: Song4Harrisons; Twitter & Instagram: #Song4Harrisons; www.aliveandkickinchoir.co.uk
Additional information:
The Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir
Founded in 2013 by singer songwriter Tanya Walker, the Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir Brecon is a choir for people of all backgrounds and singing abilities. Thanks to Tanya’s enthusiasm and boundless energy, what started as a small choir with only a hand-full of members has now grown to a well-established and popular choir of over 50 regulars. The choir performs at events in Brecon and beyond.
Tanya Walker
Tanya is a professional choir leader, classical musician and singer-songwriter with over 38 years of experience in music. She leads two choirs in the South Wales Valleys as well as The Alive & Kickin' Community Choir Brecon and also works as a vocal and performance coach. In 2004 Tanya won the PRS/ FOPP Best Singer-Songwriter award in the South West & Wales and represented the PRS in Beijing, in the creation of new work with rising stars from China and Hong Kong and leading showcase events to major record labels such as Warner Brothers and SONY music. Tanya was granted an award by the Arts Council of Wales in 2012 to create an hour long multi-disciplinary new musical work 'Breaking the Fearwall', which was performed at Brecon Cathedral to a sell-out audience. For the past 17 years Tanya has also been the SONIG Youth Music Industry Co-ordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Councils Arts Service, supporting, guiding and mentoring young people aged 8 - 25 into the music and creative industries.
What is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?
This incurable genetic disorder affects children around the world. Although most children with Duchenne are boys, around 1% of sufferers are girls. Children affected by this illness can't produce dystrophin, a protein needed need to build muscle tissue. As a result, the muscles in the body deteriorate. Most children are unable to stand or walk by the age of 12 and die in their late teens or early twenties. Currently 2,500 children in the UK have the disease. There is no cure but scientists are confident that they are close to a breakthrough.
About Harrison’s Fund
Harrison's Fund was set up in 2012 up by Alex and Donna Smith, in response to their son Harrison being diagnosed with Duchenne, a type of muscular dystrophy. Its aim is to raise money to fund the world's best researchers, who are working to find a cure for the disease. The charity is currently funding 16 research projects in the US and the UK. Duchenne is a fatal neuromuscular condition caused by the lack of a protein called dystrophin which results in progressive muscle weakness. One in 3,500 boys is born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the United Kingdom each year and there are currently around 2,500 boys and young men with Duchenne. Their average lifespan is just 20 years and it is 100% fatal. Harrison’s Fund is different from many other Duchenne charities out there because it focuses entirely on trying to find a cure for the disease rather than on palliative care.
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