It was lovely to catch up with Daisy Williamson, Music Therapist at Ipswich Hospital, and to hear how well the remote music therapy sessions have been going, and how much the children and parents have welcomed the interaction and opportunity for expression.
We are delighted to have been able to fund a steel tongue drum for Daisy to use at Ipswich Hospital. Daisy has very kindly sent us this video of her experimenting with this fabulous instrument. Daisy had this to say about the steel tongue drum: ‘It is very beautiful, and a lovely size – so great for children to play, very accessible, where a little effort can create a big effect!’
A huge thank you to the The Roger David Burrows Music Fund, https://www.rogerdavidburrows.co.uk/, who granted Jess Grant Celebration £100 to put towards the purchase of this instrument for the children at Ipswich Hospital.

We are pleased to announce that the online auction of Brian May signed items raised a total of £669 for Jess’ charity from the sale of 4 items. Thank you to everyone who bid and to the lovely people who bought the books, who have been a pleasure to deal with this week. Sadly, due to a change in circumstances, the 5th book sale fell through. Fundraising is really tough right now, so we’ll keep it safe and re-auction it as part of next year’s activities.
Thank you so much again to Brian May and his fantastic team for donating the beautiful books and signed bookplates, and for all the help in promoting our auction. It was wonderful to see Jess’ charity centre stage on Queen’s official website for a while, right next to Queen & Adam Lambert news. Jess would have been so embarrassed, but I think a little proud too.

Thank you so much to the Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music Committee for selecting our charity to receive the very generous donation of £300 from the money raised at their first festival held in August 2019. We are extremely grateful to family friend Becky Hamilton-Wright for nominating Jess Grant Celebration for this donation. Henry Creagh, one of the festival organisers, very kindly had the following to say about Jess Grant Celebration: “It’s a great cause and an inspiring idea to be able to help people, especially children through music in this way, and just the kind of thing that the festival is all about.”

Thank you very much to Henry for providing the following information about the Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music, its aims and their plans for this year’s festival. We will keep everything crossed for them that they are able to hold this year’s festival at some stage.

“The Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music was set up to be a creative event for the town that would inspire and encourage arts and creative industries in the local area, and give audiences a high quality experience of local, national and international acts. We also wanted to inspire the next generation of artists by getting local schools and organisations involved in the festival, and by raising money for creative education for young people in Suffolk.

As well as being multi art form, diverse and accessible, we also have a strong sustainability message both in the way we do things at the event and through collaboration with local green organisations.

Under the present circumstances, (which I’d like to but can’t avoid mentioning), we do hope to put on an event in the town once its safe to do so. Because we’re fairly small, and mainly voluntary, we think we can do this at short notice once the moment arises, so please watch this space.”

Thank you very much to Chris Brammer at Ipswich Hospital for providing us with the video he created at the launch of the new Music Therapy Service on the Children’s Ward before Christmas.

Incredibly excited and proud to be able to announce the official launch of a brand new music therapy service for children and young people at Ipswich Hospital. We’re delighted that Jess Grant Celebration has been able to provide funding to initiate and support this new service at Ipswich so soon after the creation of Jess’ charity.
Daisy Williamson of Suffolk Music Therapy Services (pictured in the navy polo shirt on the right) will be providing Music Therapy at Ipswich Hospital 1 day per week, starting in January 2020. She will be working closely with the brilliant team at Ipswich Hospital, who have wanted Music Therapy on the ward for many years.
Today was very special: Daisy leading the carol singing on the keyboard and harp, with many of the patients, staff and Jess Grant Celebration representatives in great voice, or at least great sleigh bell jingling 🙂
Thank you so much to all of our supporters for all the fundraising efforts during 2019, please see our website and social media channels for news about our 2020 events which will enable us to continue to support this fantastic initiative at Ipswich hospital for many years to come.