When you meet someone at a networking event, the last thing you expect is to be sitting down over a cup of coffee and milky tea with them a few weeks later, writing a song about the loss of their beautiful child. Well this is exactly what happened after I met Elizabeth Dee with A Song For Edward and it was the catalyst for a series of amazing events to help raise awareness of the terrible diseases Meningitis and Sepsis.
Not only that but it made it to No. 7 in the Amazon charts and gained the attention of celebrities such as Matt Lucas, Fern Britton, Jason Watkins and Leigh Francis (AKA Keith Lemon) who pushed out the song to their millions of followers over on Twitter.
It had numerous radio plays on stations across the county in Lytham St. Annes where The Edward Dee Fund is based and also across Lancashire on stations such as 2BR, BBC Radio Lancashire and community stations such as Drystone Radio. Its reach was far and wide.
(Photo courtesy of Northern Life Magazine)
We secured an article in Northern Life Magazine who are great supporters of local causes and always go above and beyond to report on worthwhile things going on they feel people need to know about.
The reason I'm writing this blog is to raise more awareness of Meningitis and Sepsis through directing you to The Edward Dee Fund website but also to highlight that if you go to a conference, networking event or any other place where you can meet new people and businesses... you never know where it will take you. It's always worth the journey. Always. It gives us the ability to make an impact on other people's lives, on our own lives and build better communities.
Get out there and make friends! - Jay x
For more information about networking events I can recommend the following I've attended. If you know of any more in Lancashire let me know via my website: