John Kernaghan was a kind, considerate and caring Gentleman. As a member of Rainbow Chorus, he loved singing with us and both he and Laurie have helped the Chorus and individual members with so many different acts of kindness and support in the years they have been connected to it. John passed away on Friday 11th August and we will all miss him so much. He lived life to the full, not letting illness define him and made a positive contribution to any situation.

It is a proven medical fact that singing is good for our mental and physical health. Rainbow Chorus wants to encourage all members of the LGBT+ community to join us and benefit from the positive effects of singing if they want to do so. We have a bursary fund which helps to support those in greater financial need to be fully involved in all our activities, including trips to sing at choral events worldwide that help to further the aims of the LGBT+ community and LGBT+ choirs. Many of us have joined the Chorus at a really low ebb and been well supported by the Rainbow Chorus family to get through our difficulties. A significant proportion of our members are on fixed or low incomes and pay reduced or nil subscriptions. It is one of our guiding principles that cost should never be a barrier to any member joining us, remaining a member, or participating fully in all our activities. We have many demands on our limited resources and John recognised this in life, with regular, personal donations to the Bursary fund.

We all feel John's absence so keenly and want to honour his and Laurie's wish to collect funds to grow our Bursary scheme. We are therefore setting up this Just Giving page in John's memory and rebranding our bursary scheme to call it the John Kernaghan Bursary fund. We hope that you will want to donate to this fund. Please give as generously as you can. Any amount you can donate will be used wisely and will help us to support more members as well as ensuring John's connection with Rainbow Chorus is never forgotten. Thank you in advance for your help.