Darlington Forum Bands 2023 + Charity Fundraiser

Matt Long is a multi-award-winning guitarist, singer, and songwriter with blues rock band Catfish. He is also about to marry the love of his life in a couple of months. He has a lot to live for.

Matt has been battling bowel cancer for just under a year and despite surgery and chemo, his latest scan shows that the cancer has spread into his liver and stomach lining. His cancer team have said although there is the option of trying a different type of chemo, they don’t hold out much hope that it will cure him and is likely to at best extend his life a little.

Essentially, Matt has almost exhausted the options available on the NHS. But his family and friends aren’t ready to give up on him. On the recommendation of his cancer team, they have sent away a sample of the tumour to the USA to be genetically sequenced which will give the maximum amount of information on it’s make up. This will then show the cancer team exactly what drugs to use to damage it – to either slow it down, or there is just a small chance that they may be able to kill it.

The only access to this treatment is via the private route which is going to be expensive. Just the sequencing is a little under £3k and any drugs will apparently be about £3k a month after that.

The family will fund what they can and have so far raised over £70k in a crowdfunder for a ‘fighting fund’ but this is potentially a real money pit. Without any treatment, his cancer team have told Matt he won’t make it past the end of this year. With the access to sequencing, if it turns out to be something specific, they have drugs for, he may have a 15% chance of survival – that has to be worth a shot.

In addition to the crowd funder, there are now five benefit concerts being held across the U.K. in May and June, and we are very pleased that The Forum Music Studios will be one of them.

The Forum line-up will include a House Band consisting of:
Jamie Pipe – Keys (The Mentulls & Danny Bryant)
Steve Amadeo – Bass (Aynsley Lister & Ian Parker Bands)
Alvin Sephton – Drums (More T Vicar & The Defenders)

Witrh special guests:
The Wilson Brothers, John Verity, Rebecca Downes, Andrew Pipe, Emma Wilson, Lorna Fothergill

Tickets £25.00
Doors From: 6.00PM
Show Starts: 7.00PM (Approximately)
16+ (Under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult)
Standing Event
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