Music festival held in tribute of Warwick musician helps cancer charities

In June a music festival, which was called Folk Off Cancer, was held at Warwick Racecourse.

The event was held both in tribute to Mick Shaler, who died after losing his battle with cancer and to raise money for Myton Hospices and Macmillan.

The music festival was originally set up by Mick five years ago, when it was known as the Piganini Trilogy, to raise money for cancer charities, after batting against cancer himself.

Sylvia Latimer, who is also known as Sylvie, was with Mick for 18 and a half years.

Mick, who lived in Warwick, was a keen musician and played the violin and the fiddle.

In 2010 Mick was diagnosed with a rare form of throat and tongue cancer. After receiving treatment Mick went into remission and decided that he wanted to help other people affected by cancer.

In 2012 he created the music festival event, which was made up of three concerts and he managed to raise around £2,500 for Macmillan and the Arden cancer centre in Coventry.

Mick’s cancer returned in 2013 and the treatment was unsuccessful.

In April 2015 Mick and Sylvie moved into Myton Hospice in Warwick and in May Mick died.

After five years, Sylvie decided to bring back the music festival as a fitting tribute to Mick.

Folk Off Cancer took place at Warwick Racecourse on June 17 and featured 11 acts.

Sylvie said: “There was a good age mix at the festival and a lot of families came and despite being a baking hot day there was a nice atmosphere and we learnt a lot from putting on the festival.

“There is a possibility that we will be bringing back the festival next year and at the moment we are looking at potentially getting someone to sponsor the event.

“We managed to raise a total of £2,622 from the event, which was split between Myton Hospice and Macmillan.

“Thank you to everyone who helped with the festival, thank you to everyone who performed and to everyone who came along.”