St Albans students remember lives of tragic friends with festival

THE lives of two much-loved teenagers who died in tragic circumstances earlier this year have been celebrated and remembered by their school friends with a music and dance tribute festival. Elliot Simms, 15, and Georgia Sharman, 14, died at the same hospi

THE lives of two much-loved teenagers who died in tragic circumstances earlier this year have been celebrated and remembered by their school friends with a music and dance tribute festival.

Elliot Simms, 15, and Georgia Sharman, 14, died at the same hospital within a few days of each other after attempting to take their own lives in separate and unrelated incidents.

The tragic deaths left the school community at Sandringham - where both of the teenagers were popular, talented and active pupils - in a state of total shock.

But six months on, their friends have managed to channel their grief into producing two vibrant evening concerts celebrating gifted musician Elliot and talented dancer Georgia's respective passions in life.

The performances - dubbed the Eee Gee Festival - were organised by students from the same year group as Elliot and Georgia over a period of many weeks.

The festival saw more than 30 acts perform music and dance items to packed out audiences at the SandPit Theatre, located within the school's grounds, on October 16 and 17.

Elliot's band Change of Plan opened on both evenings with Eye of the Tiger followed by two of their own songs, I Don't Care and Untitled, and on the Saturday night they finished with No Doubt's Spiderwebs. The group featured Sandringham students Dan Bostock and Charlie Thornton on lead and bass guitars, and Oakley Moffatt from Verulam School on drums.

A number of dance groups also performed, including two Georgia had been part of. Her BTEC dance class performed a piece she had been working on, and students' group Psychd danced to Beyonce's Halo.

In the process, the students raised over �1,800 for COSMIC (Children Of St Mary's Intensive Care) - a charity based at London's St Mary's Hospital which supports families through the bereavement of their children.

The remainder will be used to buy two memorial benches for Elliot and Georgia.

Sandringham headteacher, Alan Gray, said: "Elliot and Georgia have been greatly missed by their peers and this was their opportunity to say farewell using music and dance, which were significant features of both former students' lives."

Thousands of people have already joined special groups set up in memory of Georgia and Elliot on social networking site Facebook, which are packed with photos and personal memories about their lives.

In messages left on these pages, friends dedicated the Eee-Gee Festival to the two teenagers.