It’s been an extraordinary year for everyone and I hope you are well at this difficult time. 

At the start of lockdown I set myself the challenge of running 100km a month. After all that training, and as a veteran of a few half marathons, I felt it was time to tackle the ‘big one’! Having run a training marathon during the lockdown,  I am now about to run my first ever fully organised and officially recognised marathon on Sunday 4th October, in one of the first official COVID-safe marathons in Kent, where I live - The Podplus Kent Marathon! 

I am hoping to raise £500 for Greenwich Music School where I teach cello to many wonderful students, alongside 20 other freelance professional music teachers.

As a registered charity, Greenwich Music School helps many young people each year to experience learning a musical instrument for the first time, some of whom might not otherwise get the opportunity. They reach a community of over 2000 annually, working across community and children's centres, nurseries and local schools.

Their Bursary Fund helps families in hardship to access music lessons in groups and individually, offering discounted places and helping with access to musical instruments. They also run the internationally acclaimed London Conducting Academy and support a great many music teachers and aspiring graduates through theirTeacher Network in South East London. 

The charity delivers thousands of lessons each year, we’re mostly teaching on-line at the moment and hopefully soon back in person from GMS' lovely new Greenwich studios on Vanbrugh Hill. 

During lockdown GMS have managed to deliver over 2500 lessons. 

It’s a great charity,  founded and directed by Bethan and Ed Scolding, doing some really valuable work in the community - as some of the recent feedback quotes below show - and it has been nominated this year for Best for Performing Arts Provider at the Hoop Awards 2020 and most recently in the Most Loved Charity or Not-for-Profit Community Activity at the What's On 4 Kids Awards

Thank you for any support you are able to give me to complete my marathon challenge and raise some money for Greenwich Music School ! 

“Thank you for all you do to bring music and joy to Greenwich!”(Anonymous donor)

“We are really grateful to know that our music lessons will continue through these difficult times.”(Samantha,Parent)

“The online lessons have truly been amazing, as a single mum it has truly lightened my load.”(Masackia, Parent)

“Greenwich Music School is providing not just a music intervention, but an opportunity to inspire and support parents and children at the earliest point possible.”(National Creative Learning Awards Judge)

“Your work is a wonderful way of enabling those children who would normally be cut off from the world of music to find a new and exciting entry to a very special world.”(Anonymous donor)