Alarm singer raises thousands for cancer treatment

Jan 28 2008 By Jamie Smith

SNOWDON Rocks, the highest concert in Wales and England, staged by Alarm frontman Mike Peters, was a massive success last summer.

Now all the donations and sponsorships have been collected and counted up, and they can reveal that Mike and his Love Hope Strength Foundation cancer charity raised well over £40,000, which is being donated to local cancer treatment/care centres throughout North Wales.

Mike was at Ysbyty Gwynedd on Friday, January 18, to hand over a cheque of £16,000 to the Alaw Unit, where he regularly receives treatment for leukaemia.

He has also donated £16,000 to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and the rest was distributed between three hospice care homes in North Wales.

Mike has also revealed plans for a Snowdon Rocks 2 on June 21, due to the success of last year, and the money raised will again go towards the two hospitals.

The Snowdon Rocks event last July involved Mike and a hardy band of fans, friends, hospital medical staff, and a team of Royal Welsh Guards walking to the summit of Snowdon to take part in an acoustic concert.

Mike said: "From a personal point of view I owe my life to the skills of the doctors and their ability to diagnose my leukaemia and put me on the road to recovery when I was at death’s door, which is why I chose to donate to the hospital wards.

"For anyone that goes through cancer it’s a massive and life-changing thing, and if you do come out the other side, then I think you come out a better person and more aware of what’s important, which is why I set up the Love Hope Strength Foundation.

"We take it for granted in the UK that we get served by the NHS, and it’s easy to complain because we don’t pay for it, but the doctors and nurses are just humans and are doing the absolute best they can, and I think it’s important that they get recognised sometimes for the work they do."

Of the massive £40,000 total, Mike said: "It was quite a shock how much we raised, there was a lot of goodwill – Alarm fans came from all over the country and everyone who took part in the walk had to have raised £200, so they were a committed group."

Mike recently returned from Nepal where he broke the record for the world’s highest concert on land, when he performed on Mount Everest, and early last year he performed on top of the Empire State Building in New York.

In September, he is hoping to perform on the Inca Trail, Lima and Machu Picchu in Peru.

He added: "It’s been fantastic going to these places, obviously I’m passionate about raising awareness for cancer.

"I’m not cured, but am confident that will happen, but I don’t want to sit back and wait around, and I want to help these countries that don’t have the same resources and to raise awareness."

Tickets are still available for The Gathering, his two day Alarm shows at Venue Cymru. For more information, call (01745) 571571.