Video hope for Edward song

A video performance by members of local community groups is one of the ideas being considered in a bid to ensure a song written in memory of meningitis victim Edward Dee leaves a lasting impression.
Elizabeth Dee with EdwardElizabeth Dee with Edward
Elizabeth Dee with Edward

A Song For Edward, commissioned by the family of the St Annes youngster and written and performed by east Lancashire songwriter Jay Stansfield, failed to make the top 100 when the new official music charts were announced at the weekend, despite a promising start to sales and social media backing from several celebrities.

But Edward’s mum Elizabeth has been delighted at the interest in the song from community groups as well as organisations leading research into meningitis and sepsis – and is determined the song, which is helping to raise cash for the fun set up in Edward’s memory, will have a lasting legacy.

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“We’ve had massive support for which we are so grateful,” she said.

“It was great to see celebrities such as Matt Lucas, Jason Watkins, Fern Britton, Nick Knowles, Kym Marsh and Keith Lemon helping to promote it on social media, along with the chief executive of Sepsis UK.

“The song made it up to No 3 on Amazon’s hot new releases and No 7 in its bestsellers, which was a phenomenal achievement.

“It was also testament to the support The Edward Dee Fund has in this community and beyond, and shows that nationally people realise that there is a really important message to highlight – raising awareness of sepsis and meningitis. Indeed sepsis is the biggest killer now, with even more people falling victim to that than cancer.

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“There has been lots of interest from the community in singing the song and we’d like to do a video later this year, featuring lots of community groups and to be used at all our future events.”

“We are also looking for more help and support to take it to the next level and hope more media will join The Gazette in promoting the song and its message.

Jay said: “The song had over 6,000 streams on Spotify which feels like a massive achievement. We were some way of the number of downloads we needed to get it into the official charts but we’re still grateful for everyone who’s downloaded it so far.”