Ukulele ladies – and men – making music to support the Daisy Appeal

Claire Levy, Fundraiser at the Daisy Appeal, receiving a donation from Lynne Petersen, founder of the Assembly Line.

A UKULELE band which recently handed over a donation to the Daisy Appeal from an impromptu live show and CD sales is going on the fund-raising trail again later this month.

The Assembly Line Ukulele Band is expecting a full house for a music evening in aid of Yorkshire Cancer Research at the Sun Inn, Beverley, on Saturday 22 February.

Lynne Petersen, founder of the band, said: “There will be some great musicians performing and it’s free admission so I’d advise people to get there early.”

In addition to the Assembly Line the entertainment will include music from folk and shanty band The Smugglers and acclaimed acoustic guitarist Colin Metcalfe.

Lynne launched the Assembly Line in 2013 having taught herself to play the ukulele the previous year after retiring from her career in community education and then completing a degree at the University of Hull.

She said: “I was looking for a challenge so I decided to teach myself how to play the ukulele. I was asked to perform at a fund-raising event and I asked some other ukulele players to join me.

“We have been doing charity shows ever since and this particular band has been together for two years, with 14 of us altogether and no changes in personnel. The band members are all senior citizens except one. It’s a great thing for seniors to get involved in and we have a waiting list for new members.”

Most of the players are from the Beverley area with some in Holderness and rehearsals take place at the Sun Inn and at the Community Hall in Leven with a repertoire which includes songs by the Watersons, Steeleye Span and Bob Dylan as well as music from the 1930s and 1940s.

Lynne said: “We went into the New Inn in Leven after one rehearsal and the landlord asked if we would play. Some of the band members have recovered from cancer so we decide to raise money for the Daisy Appeal. We collected about £70 in donations from people in the pub and then we sold some of our CDs to take it up to £250.

“It’s our third CD and we’ve had to get some more pressed for the event at the Sun Inn. Hopefully a lot of people will turn up to buy them from us – and if they spend more than £5 on raffle tickets they get a CD free!”

Claire Levy, Fundraiser at the Daisy Appeal, said: “We’re extremely grateful to all the members of the Assembly Line for thinking of the Daisy Appeal and to the regulars at the New Inn who gave so generously.

“The event at the Sun Inn promises to be a fantastic night and we hope it attracts a big crowd to enjoy the music and to raise more funds for the fight against cancer.”

The Daisy Appeal has a target of £8.2-million to complete a radiochemistry and cyclotron unit which will produce radioactive tracers at Castle Hill Hospital to improve accuracy and detection rates for cancer, heart disease and dementia in Hull, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

The new facility will provide the opportunity for patients to receive more personalised care leading to earlier diagnosis and giving them better treatment and quality of life.

Once the facility is fully functional patients from a wider geographical area will have access to its services. The charity aims to play a leading role in clinically relevant PET-CT research over the next two decades and to show that the technology can be brought to the individual patient, quickly and effectively.

To find out more about the Daisy Appeal please visit www.daisyappeal.org