Special Hucknall concert raises more than £1,300 for girl 7, suffering with rare cancer

The concert was BMVC’s first annual concert since before the Covid-19 pandemic and the event is usually celebrates the life and legacy of the choir’s founder, the late Len Hogg.

However, this year, the event also raised funds for Leila Hallam, seven-year-old girl from Cotgrave, who suffers from rhabdomyosarcoma – a rare life-threatening form of children’s cancer, with which she was diagnosed in late October 2021.

The funds raised were to help Leila achieve her lifetime wish of visiting Florida and also to donate to the rhabdomyosarcoma clinical trial to promote awareness of the condition.

Peter Fletcher, from BMVC, said: “It went very well indeed, we had a capacity audience and we raised £1,300 for the little girl which was tremendous.

"Both choirs gave up their fees and the church didn’t charge either, so every penny raised from the night went to the charity."

Both performers and audience also took time at the start of the evening to think of the people of Ukraine and the suffering they are going through at present.

Peter continued: “We had the Ukrainian flag on the MC’s rostrum and we started the evening by playing the Ukrainian national anthem, which drew long applause and clearly went down very well with people.

"Considering we haven’t had a concert in two years, I thought it went very well, everyone said we made a good sound and it was a tremendous success."

Numbers that went down particularly well with the audience on the night included Viva La Vida, Fields of Athenry and Mr Blue Sky by ELO always goes down particularly well at the end when we’ve all got our sunglasses on!”

Fewer than 60 children are diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in the UK each year and many of them are younger than 10.

Leila was linked the late Colin Slater, who died recently, who used to commentate on Notts County’s games for Radio Nottingham.

BMVC’s president is also linked with Notts County, which is how the choir came to know about Leila and decide to support her.