Kimberley Walsh has shared her and her Girls Aloud bandmates' vow as they prepare for a special charity event in the late Sarah Harding's memory. The remaining former members of pop group are to host a fundraising gala for cancer research next week in honour of their late friend and bandmate.
The Primrose Ball will be held at The Londoner hotel in central London on October 8, with performances from the likes of Olly Alexander and a live auction which includes an original canvas depicting the pop star by artistic duo the Connor Brothers.
It comes just over a year after Sarah, who shot to fame alongside Kimberley, Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts in Girls Aloud in the earlier noughties, died aged 39 after revealing she had breast cancer which had spread to other parts of her body.
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It was her mother, Marie, who announced her daughter's death on Instagram, describing her 'beautiful' daughter as 'a bright, shining star'. Her bandmates also shared their own tributes in the days following Sarah's death.
And next week, the charity gala will raise funds for the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, based in Withington, Manchester, and Cancer Research UK, as part of the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal.
But Kimberley has revealed that the group have vowed not to sing together at the event, saying to The Sun : "It doesn’t feel right without her." The singer and presenter went on: "We miss her so much. It’s just so hard to get your head around it — to realise that she’s gone."
Before her death in September last year, Sarah told her bandmates: “I would love you to create an evening, a gala of some kind for me. If I am here and can attend I will be able to thank those who have helped me through all of this, and pay that forward in a way that will help others when I’m gone."
It comes after Cheryl, Nadine and Nicola took part in a 5k charity run, titled Race For Life For Sarah, to celebrate Harding’s life and raise money for breast cancer. The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal aims to fund research to identify new ways to predict which young women, with no family history of breast cancer, are likely to develop the disease, ensuring people can be identified earlier when treatment is more likely to be successful.
However, Kimberley did hers while on a family holiday, roping in her loved ones for the challenge in Sarah's memory. But it now means putting on the upcoming charity event for Sarah is extra special to the mum-of-three. "I was in Ibiza for my mum’s 70th and I was gutted to miss it, to be honest.
"The walk was a really special thing to do. But we’ve got the gala, which we’ve been working on for over a year. Before Sarah died, we chatted to her and she told us she wanted us to raise as much money as we could for charity."
Last week, Cheryl spoke out about some of the last days she spent with Sarah before her tragic death. She has said in a new interview she wants to remember Sarah before her breast cancer diagnosis, rather than when she was experiencing her "darkest of days and nights."
Following the news of the charity event, in a piece for British Vogue, Cheryl revealed that Sarah, who grew up in Stockport, had hoped to attend the event in person before her death. "I asked her over and over again how we could help," Cheryl said in the publication. "Was there anything she truly wanted or needed?
"Finally she said to me: ‘I would love you to create an evening, a gala of some kind for me. If I am here and can attend I will be able to thank those who have helped me through all of this, and pay that forward in a way that will help others when I’m gone.’ Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Eight weeks later, Sarah passed."
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