Bury St Edmunds artist raises £1,300 for suicide bereavement charity HOPE

An artist has raised £1,300 for a suicide bereavement charity by hosting a free gig and selling raffle tickets for the chance to win a guitar designed by her.

Sara Kathleen hosted a show at The Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds and organised the raffle that gave people the chance to win the instrument, all to raise funds for HOPE.

Sara lost her best friend Andy to suicide in May 2016. He loved guitars and often created and crafted his own instruments.

She said: “I always want these sort of events to have really happy music. If you’re raising money for something like suicide, I don’t want everybody crying and being sad, you know?

"When people are up and dancing and having a good time, it celebrates Andy’s memory and it makes these kinds of losses easier to talk about. It makes it more normal and hopefully opens up communication.”

In the past, Sara had raffled off guitars that Andy had personally worked on and although this year’s guitar neck was his handiwork, she wanted to create something herself.

Wood is Sara’s preferred medium for her art and she bought a wooden guitar and spent 55 hours burning the design into the guitar’s body.

She uses a method known as pyrography to burn intricate patterns into the wood which can be seen on her website - www.sarakathleen.co.uk.

Service manager at HOPE, Suzy Clifford, said: “I was blown away by the work Sara has done - she’s a very special lady and we’re so grateful for her loyalty over the years.

"These kinds of fundraisers help us grow and provide our unique service to more and more people.”

To learn more about HOPE, go to www.hopecharityproject.org.

The gig saw acts Helefonix, Study Of Us, Pink Lemonade and Stretch Soul Gang perform on the night.

Performance photos were taken by David Murphy @davidmurphyagain

For confidential support on an emotional issue, call Samaritans on 116 123 at any time.

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