Big band night will raise the roof for Sarah

BIG band fund-raiser . . . Bobby Kemp

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FRIENDS and family have raised an incredible £25,000 for an Oldham nurse’s desperate bid for survival.

Sarah Swindells from Shaw is in a race against time to pay for treatment to fight a stage-four skin cancer that has ravaged her body for two years.

In June, Shaw’s Melanoma UK founder, Gillian Nuttall, set up a funding bid to raise the £70,000 needed to pay for Sarah’s lifesaving treatment at The Christie hospital. Sarah, who had just landed her dream job as a psychiatric nurse at Tameside Hospital when she received her devastating news, says the response has been amazing.

“I’ve had so much support, it’s lovely,” said Sarah. “There’s still a long way to go but fundraising is going well. I’m going through chemotherapy at the moment and need to finish that before the treatment starts.”

Sarah’s friend, musician Bobby Kemp is staging a big band night at Dukinfield Town Hall on October 2.

Bobby and Sarah met 25 years ago, when she was a fan of “Madchester” band Ambitious Beggars, and the two became friends.

Bobby hopes to raise several thousand pounds for the “70k For Sarah” cause by staging the big band show.

“Sarah followed our band in the 1980s and Nineties and being from the same area we got to know each other and became friends,” said Bobby. “When I heard she was very ill it really rocked me.

“I don’t do many public shows these days - but this was a good reason to do one.”

For more information and tickets, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk.

To help Sarah reach her target, donate via www.you caring.com/sarah-swindells.