A singer from St Albans has released a charity single for causes close to her heart.
Stacey Smith is nearing her fundraising goal of £1,500 for Myeloma UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, and UCH Cancer Research Fund after re-releasing track Still Here - The Lockdown version 2020 with her band.
She originally wrote the song back in 2008 and felt it resonated with today’s lockdown world.
Stacey said: “The song sprang to mind because it is about being stuck in a rut, never-ending days, like a Groundhog Day, and it resonated with me and how I am feeling at the moment and probably how most people are feeling right now!
“So we decide to re-release it.”
The track is a real family affair with The Stacey Smith Band featuring Stacey’s dad Bryan on guitar, her brother Darren on drums and her sister Daisy playing bass.
It also features Stacey’s husband and daughter, alongside her sister-in-law, nephew and her mum – the inspiration for raising funds for University College Hospital in London and the two cancer charities.
Stacey explained: “The reason for the chosen charities is because my mum, Denise, was diagnosed with Myeloma blood cancer in May last year.
“This is an incurable cancer, but it can be kept under control with the right treatment.
“My mum is a patient at UCH in London and she was there for her stem cell transplant and at the Macmillan Cancer centre throughout January and February 2020.”
She added: “Myeloma is not a well-known cancer, so last year we raised just short of £3k for them.
“What with all the charities losing most of their funding due to the virus, we wanted to do something to try and raise some money for the charities that looked after our mum.”
The song’s video, which is dedicated to a friend who sadly passed away of cancer last month, has already been viewed more than 7,000 times.
Originally from London Colney but now in St Albans, Stacey said: “I made the video whilst in lockdown, from videos sent to me by the band plus some live footage from a gig a few years back.”
The single can be found on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon, and you can donate to the JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stillhere2020
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