World-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch and actors Emilia and Freddie Fox starred in a fundraising concert for Ukraine at Winchelsea Church on 2nd October 2022
The concert was brought together by Ann Rachlin MBE to raise funds for the St Nicholas Hospital for Children in Lviv.
An amazing £20,000 has been raised from donations, sponsorship and ticket sales, and it will go towards the creation of a new operating theatre for babies.
The performers, Raphael Wallfisch, John York, Emilia Fox and Freddie Fox performed without any fee and all expenses were covered by sponsors so that everything raised could go to the cause.
The concert began with the Poet Laureate’s ‘Resistance’, powerfully read by Freddie Fox. Works by local poet, Harvey Gillman, and Ukranian poets Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka were interspersed with cello pieces by Beethoven, Messiaen, Bloch, Gliere and Prokofiev. The final poem, Ukrainska’s ‘Against all hope, I hope’ read by Emilia Fox, pointed to the possibility of a better future.
Click here to see the programme
At a reception after the concert, Bishop Ken Nowakowski, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in London, spoke about the situation in the country from which he has recently returned, and thanked the Winchelsea community for its support.
The St Nicholas Hospital for Children in Lviv is currently meeting trains from all over Ukraine where they are having to admit severely injured children from all over the country because their local hospitals have been hit by Russian missiles. Many of them have lost limbs and have painful shrapnel wounds and burns, as well as being severely traumatised by what they have witnessed.
This three-minute video explains the work the Hospital is doing
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All donations deeply appreciated.
Click here to make a donation on our Just Giving page
Photos by Kt Bruce
ktbruce.co.uk
To see the Rye News report and more photos click here
