George's Rockstars charity say 'Let's Make Christmas Loud!' as they shoot for a Christmas number one

The charity is named after George O'Shaughnessy who died aged six from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in August 2019. Set up by his parents, the charity aims to make children in hospital smile through the use of music therapy.

George was diagnosed with ALL at just 22 months old in November 2014. During his near five year battle, the youngster spent most of his time in hospital, and it was his experience with music therapy that inspired the charity’s beginnings.

They have now released the single Let’s Make Christmas Loud! which was written by charity trustee Daniel Ash, who was George’ Rocksteady music tutor.

The song opens with the poingant sound of George’s younger sister asking: “Mummy, will Santa still visit us in hospital?”

George’s mum Amy O'Shaughnessy, from Fareham, said: “It's an important message and having spent Christmas in hospital myself with George, I know what it's like, and that's the feeling we were trying to get across in the video.

“George only got to do one performance at school before he passed away, but he loved music and he loved Christmas. Dan said to me back in spring he'd written a Christmas song and I thought it was a great idea. They recorded it and George's dad, Craig, plays drums on the track, so it's a really nice story behind it and I think they've done a really good job with it as a Christmas song – it's very catchy.

“We haven't quite got the reach of Ladbaby,” she said referring to the Youtuber who has dominated the Christmas charts in recent years, but is not releasing a song this year, “but we're trying to get it out to as many people as possible.

"The song's amazing, I'm really proud of what they've put together and the message behind it lovely, and all money raised by it goes to a good cause, so we're all doing our best to get it out far and wide and get it to Christmas number one, which is where it deserves to be! We know that's difficult, but we're going to try.

A lot of the footage for the video was shot in Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Portsmouth.

“QA was our second home,” says Amy. “We spent time at Southampton too, but more at QA. That's why it was the first hospital we wanted to bring music therapy to because they're really good there and don't often get as much attention as the kids' cancer ward in Southampton. We've been working in there nearly three years now.”

The charity also works in Winchester, Basingstoke and Southampton.

The song is available now on streaming services or can be bought from georgesrockstars.bandcamp.com.