Ellesmere College raises thousands of pounds for F1 legend's charity

A Shropshire school has raised thousands of pounds for F1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart’s charity.

Ellesmere College held a charity concert to raise funds for Race Against Dementia and collected a staggering £2,300 through ticket sales and a raffle.

British racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart - who set up the charity after his wife Helen was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia almost 10 years ago - sent a message of thanks to the prestigious school.

Raffle prizes included a hardback copy of Sir Jackie’s book Winning is Not Enough and a half size Mini–Bell Helmet, both signed by Sir Jackie.

Stephen Mullock, Deputy Headmaster at Ellesmere College, said: “We are very grateful to Sir Jackie for donating such fantastic prizes for our raffle, there was a lot of excitement about these and many people were eager to win. It played a great part in helping us to raise this fantastic amount for the worthwhile cause and I thank everyone who bought tickets and came along to enjoy the evening. Not even a fire alarm could dampen the spirits of the evening, it was a great celebration and we are proud to have been able to do this for Race Against Dementia.”

Sir Jackie - who has visited the prestigious school a number of times including to open the Support for Learning Department - could not attend in person due to commitments overseas.

His charity aims to raise funds to fuel five elite dementia research teams racing to fast-track a cure for dementia and in his message of thanks he said the school’s success would benefit the charity.

The concert, in the Big School at Ellesmere College at 7pm on Friday (Oct 13), included performances by the Lower School Choir, Chapel Choir, Chamber Choir, Lower School Band, Senior Orchestra and Choral Society, as well as the Choir of Adcote school.

The choirs performed film music, musicals and popular music too such as 'Uptown Girl', 'American Idiot', 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

Towards the end the audience joined in with 'What a Wonderful World'.

For more information on music at Ellesmere College please visit www.ellesmere.com or follow them on Instagram.