Russ Ward, aged 37, from Thorpe Hesley is holding a one day festival charity event called “MiniSession” at Southbank Warehouse to raise money for the charity’s ongoing Myeloma Appeal, in memory of his father in law Michael Brooke who passed away February last year.

Michael was diagnosed in April 2016 after he went to his local GP because he had pain in his rib but a bone marrow biopsy later confirmed he had myeloma.

From then Michael underwent numerous treatments including another biopsy, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant before he relapsed in March 2017 and passed away soon after aged 60.

His care was amazing from start to finish

Russ said: “Once you’ve been told it’s myeloma, there’s no cure for it, some people live a lot longer than Michael up to 5-10 years but once you have the diagnosis it’s always on your mind that you’re going to lose them one day.

“But his care was amazing from start to finish, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital did an amazing job.

“When Michael was in remission, myself and his daughter, Claire got married because she wanted to make sure that Michael was well enough to walk her down the aisle. We planned a music festival for the wedding with bands and everyone kept telling us we should do it again.

“Music was a massive part of Michaels life, he used to DJ and do karaoke, we even went to see Phil Collins when he was poorly so it made sense to do something music related.”

The fundraising festival includes local bands At The Arcade, The Zeroes and Jungle Lion as well as DJ’s from across the country.

Music was a massive part of Michaels life

The event will be held on the 5^th May, tickets are £20 with 300 tickets available and all the money being put towards research into myeloma.

Tickets are available here: http://skiddle.com/e/13472753

Sheffield Hospitals Charity’s Cure Myeloma Appeal raised £90,000 in 2017 to fund groundbreaking research which may one day find a cure for the devastating disease.

Dr Chantry and his team of researchers now want to raise a further £50,000 to discover new ways to eliminate myeloma cancerous cells and test new drugs which doctors believe will help to accelerate the arrival of new and effective treatments.

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