A Crieff woman who raised £12,000 for a charity that helped her as a child has performed alongside celebrities, including singer Damien Rice in London.
Cara Tavendale, 25, took to the stage to sing and play the piano at the SeriousFun Children’s Network Campfire Bash.
Other celebrities performing at the event included Steve Coogan and Britain’s Got Talent winners, Twist and Pulse.
Cara represented Over The Wall, the charity for which she has raised more than £12,000. It hosts free residential camps for children.
Cara regularly attended the camps as a teenager and spoke of her joy of representing the charity at the Campfire Bash.
She said: “I had so much fun performing and representing the most amazing charity.
“I was very happy to be on stage performing and it was lovely to have my sister there with me to help tell our family’s story before I sang.”
Cara performed a cover of Annie Lennox’s Universal Child.
Other performances included singing from Damien Rice and Diane Birch, who sang Nothing but a Miracle.
It was through Over The Wall’s camps, based in Strathallan in Perthshire, that Cara managed to reclaim parts of her childhood that her illness would otherwise have taken.
At age 13, her appendix burst and she developed sepsis.
This meant she needed repeated surgery, leaving her in a high dependency unit for almost two months.
As an adult, Cara has worked tirelessly to give back to the charity.
She said: “Over The Wall has provided so much love and support to my family for many years, helping us get through some very tough times.
“For me it is so important to give that support back to them.”
The Campfire Bash event was organised to celebrate the work of the SeriousFun Children’s Network.
The network is made up of a global community of charities that provide free camps for children with serious illnesses. It was set up by the Hollywood actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman, who died in 2008.
