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Unique 'cycle-oke' event raises over £6,500 for Youth Music

Four members of Youth Music staff combined a 50 mile cycle with a marathon karaoke session to raise funds in memory of their former colleague Hayley Hazelby, who died last year from cancer, aged 29.

Carol Reid, Amy Wilson, Dougie Lonie and Nick Wilsdon - who all work in Youth Music's Grants and Learning team - wanted to organise a fundraising event to help support work with music for children in hospital setting in memory of Hayley who passed away after a 13-month battle against cancer.

A unique fundraising idea

The idea for the cycle-oke fundraiser was inspired by Hayley’s love of singing and cycling. While at Youth Music, Hayley was one of the many members of staff who transformed her commute by getting on two wheels. When Hayley was ill and undergoing chemotherapy treatment, her Youth Music friends visited her bringing along the karaoke game SingStar, which provided lots of welcome laughs and fun at an otherwise sombre time.

On Sunday 30 March, a few days after what would have been her thirtieth birthday,  over twenty former Youth Music colleagues and friends of Hayley followed  a fifty-mile route from Hayley’s parent’s home in Shalford, Surrey all the way to the Lucky Voice karaoke rooms in Islington.  

The cycle-oke kicked off with Hayley’s parents Warren and Lorraine bolstering up some anxious cyclists with breakfast baps and drinks to set them on their way. Three punctures and one minor accident later, the tired cyclists arrived at Lucky Voice in Islington, who kindly donated three karaoke rooms free-of-charge in support of the occasion.  By the time they had reached their destination, lots of tweeting and social media activity had helped to raise donations by another £2,000 to over £5,000. With donations still coming in, the total has risen to over £6,500.

The tired cyclists still managed to muster up the energy for a fun non-stop singing and dancing karaoke session lasting three hours, finishing up with everyone joining in to belt out Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, one of Hayley’s favourites.

Music-making with children in scary circumstances

The money raised from the event will be used to fund work with children in hospital settings who find themselves in very scary and unexpected circumstances, as Hayley did. Youth Music-funded projects in hospitals have found that bringing music into these settings really brightens up the lives of children, parents and clinical staff at a very difficult time. Elsewhere, research has found that music-making activities help young cancer patients cope by gaining resilience and building relationships with family and friends. 

Youth Music’s Programme Manager, Carol Reid, helped to organise the event.  She says

“Hayley was an inspirational person who had a positive impact on the lives of everyone she met. Although it was a tiring and emotional day, we also had great fun - in honour of Hayley’s approach to life.  We hope that the work undertaken with the money raised will be a fitting tribute to her, and are thrilled that we exceeded our initial target of £3,000. We’re still encouraging donations via this link: www.bitly.com/cycleoke”

Hayley’s mum Lorraine Hazelby said:  

“This wasn’t a good week for me as it would have been my daughter’s  30th birthday and Sunday was also Mother’s Day. I was so overwhelmed seeing so many of Hayley’s friends and colleagues in such good positive moods, cycling off with ‘Hayley' embossed on the back of their jackets, the tears  trickled down my cheeks.  Although only 23 riders and a small group of singers, to raise a whopping £6,500 was a fantastic achievement. Well done to the organisers, cyclists and singers and also a big thank you to all the sponsors! They turned a miserable week into joy and happiness and the money will help many disadvantaged children to have a better life. Thank you.”

Donations can still be made via http://bit.ly/cycleoke

About music in hospitals