A FUNDRAISING page set up by a terminally-ill musician has raised more than £100,000 since her death five months ago.
Carey Lander, the keyboardist and singer with Glasgow indie band Camera Obscura, was diagnosed with rare form of bone cancer, osteosarcoma, in 2011.
After finding out last May that the condition was inoperable, the 33-year-old launched a JustGiving campaign aiming to raise £3,000 for others with the disease.
Sadly, Carey died in October, but not before her fundraising effort attracted the global support of celebrities and the public – standing at £50,000 at the time of her death.
Zooey Deschanel, Jon Ronson, Dermot O’Leary, and Lauren Laverne were but a few of the high profile names to get behind the campaign.
Carey’s page was continued in her memory by her bandmates and efforts have now raised over £100,000 for the charity Sarcoma UK, whose mission is to increase awareness, research, and support.
They reached the impressive target by selling rare items of clothing and music memorabilia – including a Fender Jazzmaster belonging to Kenny McKeeve, the band’s guitarist, which went for £1,650.
A white vintage dress worn by the lead singer Tracyanne Campbell on the album My Maudlin Career raised £200.
And an organised Valentine’s indie disco and sponsored “danceathon” also boosted funds.
After her diagnosis, Carey shared her story with the hope that “in the future … children don’t have to undergo such awful treatment and have a better chance of survival.”
Before her death, she said: “So many excellent people do brilliant things for charity and respond to their personal traumas with a notion to help others, but to be honest that’s never really something I’d felt like getting involved with.
“I hoped that beyond the support of friends and family, the people for whom the music of Camera Obscura has meant something would also feel inspired to donate, and potentially I could reach a lot of people.”
On her page, her bandmates have praised a “quiet and incisive sense of humour that undoubtedly endeared her to the huge number of friends and fans who joined her family in responding to her very personal appeal for Sarcoma UK.”
Donations continue to flood in, with one message, amongst many, remembering a “brave lady who kept fighting to the end and tried to help others in the same position as herself.”
Carey grew up in Kent and moved to Glasgow as a teenager. In 2002 she was welcomed to Camera Obscura as a talented musician, and in 13 years the band released four albums that propelled their music from cult champions to global appraise.
