In 2010 an exceptionally talented young woman called Anjalika Kapur was destined to travel from her home in Delhi to London to take up a course of technical training at the world-renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her father, Arun Kapur, a remarkable man and great friend and teacher, was devastated to report that Anjalika's dream was unexpectedly cut short when she died suddenly of an aggressive form of cancer on 25 December 2010.

In her honour, both as a singular sufferer and in recognition of the universal sense that the death of a child is the greatest pain for any parent, I seek your support to enable a positive and lasting outcome to flourish from a tragic occurrence. In short I am asking you to contribute to a fund that will give students a chance to pursue a dream for which they have fought hard. (RADA awards only a small number of places each year to exceptionally talented artists and craftspeople and auditions thousands of students for its core courses).

Arun is too modest a man to put his name to this letter, so I would like to ask you to help us celebrate Anjalika's life and, in memory of her talent and ambition, establish a Student Bursary Fund in her name which will support a student exchange programme for gifted technical students from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National School of Drama in Delhi. Each year the Bursary Award would enable a promising student from each of these two highly individual cultures to broaden their horizons and experience the richness and wonder of the training at these two world renowned schools.

Nurturing new talent has always been at the forefront of RADA's mission and this is your chance to make a valuable contribution to this ethos, making it thus possible for rigorously trained talent to be given a chance to captivate audiences worldwide. If you are minded to give at all, a donation between £100-£250 would be highly welcome, although a greater sum will of course give the Bursary Fund and the exchange programme a longer lease of life.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe as they will never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they will send your money directly to RADA and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer.

Thank you in advance for your support. I hope you will come to RADA and see the plays that result from the extraordinary nascent talent.

Piers Russell-Cobb

RADA Development Board Member