Thank you so much to everyone who got involved in Jess’ Celebration weekend. It was so lovely seeing and hearing about the celebrations. Queen and 80’s music were very much a common theme. Everyone knows that Queen were Jess’ favourite band, and she also loved 80’s music, especially when she was at primary school. Jess always had good taste 😀
We are delighted to announce that Jess’ Celebration weekend raised £765 (+ gift aid of £128.75). This is a fantastic total and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated. Every penny raised will be used to fund the fantastic music therapy service at Ipswich Hospital.
There’s still time to donate if you would like to: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/JessCelebration

Please find out how you can get involved on our Events Page at https://www.jessgrantcelebration.org.uk/events/

A huge thank you from Jess Grant Celebration for everyone’s support. It’s just over 2 years since we first launched Jess’ charity, and it was this time a year ago that the new music therapy service was launched on the Children’s ward at Ipswich Hospital. We’ve put together a little thank you presentation for everyone who has helped and supported Jess Grant Celebration over the first 2 years.
Hope you enjoy seeing all the photos again. Thank you so much x

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.”