School play in memory of fallen soldier

A PLAY created by drama students has raised more than £1,000 for a fund to help families of the Royal Anglian soldiers who lost their lives.

Chenice Clarke, a year 11 pupil at Westbourne High School, decided to write Music Mania and give the proceeds to the Royal Anglian Afghanistan Memorial Fund as a tribute to former pupil Private Aaron McClure, who was killed in action.

Pte McClure, 19, was serving with the 1st Battalion of the regiment when he and two others were killed in a blast in Afghanistan last year.

His family attended the performance at the school on Friday, which raised £1,100 for the cause.

The production consisted of a compilation of songs from musicals and was performed by 20 pupils, including some year six pupils from Springfield Junior School.

Chenice, who wants to pursue a career in acting and directing, organised the whole production, together with her friend Holly Stevenson, who was in charge of the choreography.

Chenice said: “I wanted to do something because I knew that Aaron had passed away a year ago.

“Quite a few people knew him at the school so I thought it would be nice to do something.

“It went really well and there were about 400 people who came. We even had to turn people away. The whole McClure family turned up and I think they enjoyed it.”

The memorial fund was established to provide for a permanent memorial to the soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who lost their lives serving in Afghanistan, and to provide assistance to their families and those soldiers severely injured in the line of duty.

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