Chesterfield teen pens 'poignant' song to thank keyworkers for efforts during pandemic

Cerys Ashby, a 15-year-old student who has a passion for football and music, has written a song about the struggles of the pandemic – with all proceeds from sales going to Ashgate Hospicecare.

Upon seeing that the hospice had to close its shops and cancel or postpone events, Cerys knew that it was in need of more donations.

So she set about writing a new song, called ‘Stand Up’, which is now available on Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Music for download.

The more downloads the song gets, the more money it will raise for Ashgate Hospicecare.

Cerys said: “I want to raise money for Ashgate Hospicecare as it’s a cause that’s so close to many peoples’ hearts in and around North Derbyshire.

“Seeing as I had a lot of spare time, I wanted to put it to good use by helping this worthy cause.”

Cerys also said that she would love to sing for the patients at Ashgate Hospicecare once the threat of coronavirus has subsided.

Cerys’ mum, Debbie, is proud of the hard work her daughter has put in to make the song.

She added: “I have friends who work as nurses in the NHS, so Cerys originally wrote a shorter version of this song to say thank you to them.

“We shared it on Facebook and it has already had nearly 9,000 views.

“A friend of ours then said that, if she added another verse, he could put her song onto the main streaming sites, and we could give all payments to charity.

“We know how hard the staff are working to look after patients at Ashgate Hospicecare and what a fantastic job they are doing, so it was a no-brainer to choose the hospice to receive the funds.”

Carl Jones, fundraising manager at Ashgate Hospicecare, said: “We’re so grateful to Cerys for turning her formidable talents into creating such a beautiful song to help raise vital funds for us.

“From the first listen, we were all tapping our toes to the tune of Stand Up and the lyrics really are very poignant in reflecting our shared experience of the last few months.

“We hope North Derbyshire residents will support this song, and the hospice, by downloading it.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​