Water Orton resident, Andy Townshend, has written, performed and recorded “A Song for Flo” to support a local young child who is battling a rare and particularly nasty cancer. The song is now available on you-tube, i-tunes, amazon and all other major download platforms and donations to the cause can be made via Go Fund Me.

Flo was a confident, carefree 5 year old during the summer of 2021 when she became unwell. She loves the planet and is passionate about doing her thing for climate change. Her hero is Greta Thunberg! She is a happy girl, with bundles of energy, who loves to spend time at the family allotment and she likes to have fun with her Brownies Unit!

After very many trips to medical professionals and a multitude of tests she was eventually diagnosed with Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma shortly after her sixth birthday. This is a little known and relatively rare cancer who many people have never even heard of and since the diagnosis Flo’s amazing parents (Hannah and Edd) have been caring for her whilst also raising the profile of the disease.

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that develops in nerve cells. It mostly affects babies and children up to the age of five. Neuroblastoma tumours most often occur in one of the adrenal glands, in the abdomen. First symptoms are loss of appetite, tiredness and pain in the bones, it accounts for around 6% of childhood cancers and affects less than 100 children per year in Great Britain. Treatment for the condition is gruelling involving surgery, high-dose chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, stem cell rescue and more, and Flo has followed this path during the past eighteen months.

Following the diagnosis Flo’s family and a wide circle of friends set about a whole range of fundraising activities to support her on her journey, to cover the cost of additional treatments and her ongoing care. Any surplus monies will be donated to the various care wards and many wonderful charities who have been helping her.

Andy was determined to play his part and got thinking about how he could help, when he struck upon an idea. Having always been passionate about music but purely as a listener, he enrolled on a singer-songwriter course a few years ago and has now become an accomplished performer. Hence the idea for “A Song for Flo”.

Working closely with several associates, Andy produced a wonderful song all about little Flo. The next step was to create a film to run alongside the music. He was aided in this endeavour by film producer Tom Woolley, which involved several really enjoyable and fun trips out with Flo and her family to record lots of content.

Andy commented ‘I had written the song but on its own it did not seem to bring to life the energy, positivity and joy of Flo. By making the video it seemed like a great way to capture what an amazing person she really is, for people to see’.

The end result is a brilliant performance for all to enjoy and also to encourage more donations to this really worthwhile cause. We urge you to listen and watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNNhq9fvWIk and hopefully to then donate via https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraising-for-flo