By Mark Galloway
Charlie Hawley 35 fashion stylist and Charlie Lilly online boutique owner from Sheffield, has taken on an immense amount of campaigns out of love for her older sister Kate Scholefield 37 also from Sheffield, who’s been battling cancer for the last 4 years. Charlie has set up a charity based organisation called Cancer & Me, with the intention of giving more life fulfilment support to those living with friends, family and love ones who are battling cancer.
Not only is she setting up the charity based organisation, Charlie has also set her ambitions even higher, by turning her hand to fundraising for the organisation, with a crowd funding campaign and a song called ‘It’s You’ contributed by singer/songwriter Helen Boulding, who has wavered all the royalties for the track, to raise extra capitol to assist the process. The track is released on Friday 16th December 2016, with the intention of challenging The X-Factor and other music artists for the coveted Christmas number 1 and the New Year number 1 slot. All the money raised, will be used to fully set up the charity and start the process of fulfilling the personal dreamlike adventures. https://itunes.apple.com/album/its-you-single/id1185555704?at=1l3voFY&app=itunes
Charlie, who is married with two children, has been involved in the fashion industry for twenty years. She set up an online boutique in 2014 and has also managed to gain the confidence of other local upmarket stores in Sheffield to trading some of her fashion range. She started Cancer & Me 8 weeks ago, after her sister Kate who had previously had been treated 4 years ago, had found out that her cancer had returned. She said “Me and my sister, we’re so close, there’s only two years between us and I’ve lived that whole journey with her.”
She wanted to set up a charity that offered something that other charities never offered, the possibility to do something adventurous on your own, such as, having V.I.P seating at Wimbledon, Concerts, Rugby, Football, or Spa Breaks, Beauty Salons etc, but to make sure you were treated a bit special, so when you got back to having your somewhat normal life, it makes you feel a little bit better about yourself handling the challenges ahead.
She spoke graciously about a mutual friend of ours Sally Cancello, who’s always involved in inspirational projects, but just happens to be the younger sister of Helen Boulding. She said “Sally put up a video about 2 weeks ago, when I heard the song, I just said, that’s the charities song. Sally asked me if she should call Helen, I said yes call her now. That’s how the song came about. The video, we shot and edited with Sally, within the last two weeks”
Helen Boulding’s discography reads like something that dreams are made of. She began playing the piano at the age of 7 and had a passionate affiliation with it ever since. She signed to Warner Chappell Music Publishing when she was 19 and had her first UK top 10 hit back in 1997, writing for pop boy band 911, it reached number 4 in the UK charts. Not a bad way to get your music career up and running.
She’s gone on to write for Fame Academy winner Alex Parks (The show that started the career of UK soul sensation Lemar), Joe McElderry, DJ Schiller, Paul Van Dyke, Janet Devlin, The Orb, Hayley Westenra, also writing with the likes of Ludovico Einaudi, Rick Wright from Pink Floyd, and Gavin Clark from UNKLE. Also restoring live to picture Shane Meadow’s movie “Dead Man’s Shoes” writing songs for other film soundtracks along the way.
In 2007 and 2013 she released two solo Albums, and then began touring around the world with the likes of Bryan Ferry, Ronan Keating, John Mayer, Cara Dillon, James Blunt and many more. The song “It’s You” is a track from her first album back in 2007 “New Red Dress” all the singles from the album, which was also album of the week, were supported and playlisted by radio 2
In September this year, she had a number 1 album with new twin country duo Ward Thomas, she’s currently writing For Geri Halliwell’s new album and currently developing a new young band from Yorkshire called Purple Mafia
Helen said, “I chose to support Charlie and her cause because the story behind it touched and moved me. When Charlie heard the song “It’s You” online she contacted me straight away and asked if she could use it for Cancer & Me, I immediately agreed as cancer is a subject that is close to my heart. I have lost loved ones, I’ve had family and friends who have been affected by cancer. So Charlie’s charity supporting cancer patients and survivors, helping them to live life to the full, whilst treating them to amazing experiences really inspires me. It’s a wonderful charity and I am really encouraged by Charlie’s enthusiasm”.
The community of Sheffield seem to be getting behind Charlie and her campaign for the Christmas number one. Sheffield Wednesday FC have now thrown their support behind the campaign, with some of their players, holding up the I’m Supporting Cancer & Me sign and 3 times squash world champion Nick Matthews is the latest high profile name to throw their support behind the campaign with a video message. Expect to see a lot more high profile names from Sheffield and beyond throwing their support behind the campaign for Cancer & Me.
For more information about Charlie Hawley, Helen Boulding, the track, the charity, the video, the crowd funding campaign or Charlie Lilly Online Boutique, please check out the links below.
Track: https://itunes.apple.com/album/its-you-single/id1185555704?at=1l3voFY&app=itunes
Charity FB: https://www.facebook.com/projectcancerandme/?pnref=story
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJi9E05zWsM&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
C/Funding: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/raisingforcancerandme
Helen Boulding: http://helenboulding.com/
Charlie Lilly Boutique: http://charlielilly.co.uk/
