Thank you for helping me raise sufficient funds to buy the sound cradle. It is has now been ordered!

I am continuing my campaign to raise funds for EACH and any additional funds will be allocated to the music therapy department at The Nook Hospice in Norwich where my partner Jane has worked for the last 17 years. I am hoping to raise enough purchase a smaller, portable sound cradle which Jane can take on home visits to children who are unable to come into the hospice as well as replace musical instruments that have been broken.

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My Story...

My partner Jane is a music therapist at East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH) who support families and care for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Jane has shared with me the power of music therapy and the profound impact it can have on children and their families that are having to deal with unimaginable circumstances.

A particular piece of equipment that Jane uses is a sound cradle, a unique and beautiful musical instrument made from carefully selected layers of beech and birch veneer precisely bonded together to create a semi-circular cradle shape. The cradle can be laid, stood vertically to provide a ‘sound shower’ or turned upside down like a dome. On each side are 18 strings, which are tuned to a monochord. When played, they resonate the entire instrument – a resonance felt intensely throughout the body, providing a sense of safety and containment.

Jane has been using it for two years at the Nook hospice near Norwich where she is based and loves how versatile and inclusive it is, allowing a child to enjoy the experience but also allowing two people to enjoy being together – for instance a parent and child laying together in a warm ‘sound hug’. The sound is calming and accessible to everyone, making it is a holistic experience embracing both physical and emotional feelings.

I am raising money to buy a sound cradle for the Milton hospice in Cambridgeshire. This is a specialist piece of equipment and the cost is approximately £4,000 so this is my fundraising target. Anything I raise over this will go to other vital purchases for the Music Therapy Department at The EACH Nook Hospice in Norwich.

I have completed the following events:

- RideLondon 100 mile event on 28th May

- Round Norfolk Epic 200 mile event on 11th June

- Dunwich Dynamo 112 mile overnight event on 1st July which I did on my Brompton folding bike.

- A 350 mile cycle from the EACH hospice in Norwich to Bad Zwesten in Germany where the only factory that makes sound cradles is situated. My good friend Mike Hill joined me on this epic adventure. We left on 16th August and returned on 23rd August.

My campaign of events will conclude by riding between the three East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) bases in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire on Saturday 23rd September which will be about 175 miles in one day.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you are able to donate whatever you can to help me reach my target and increase the quality of lives of those less fortunate. Any donations are greatly appreciated, whatever the amount.

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