In the week in which an appeal was launched for volunteers to help flesh out Kara Jane Spencer’s legacy, we found out that she’d recorded a treasure trove of new music before her untimely death earlier this year.
Her father, David Spencer, told us today: “She left five of her own songs and Emily, her sister, has added two more. Together with a track of her own words, which Kara told us to make sure we included, there’s plenty for a new album.”
Kara Jane was the ME community’s standout musical genius who died at home in the former mining village of Shirebrook, Derbyshire, on 2nd January. The first album released by the 32-year-old, ‘It’s Still ME’, touched our hearts when it hit the music stores on Severe ME Day in 2020.
It outsold Taylor Swift for a few days that August on Amazon and iTunes. Dolly Parton phoned her up to record an interview for a Christmas programme. TV news crews masked up to record interviews in her bedroom. There were dozens of column inches in the press. Local radio loved her!
Kara was invited on to top TV shows like ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ but she was too ill to appear.
Work is about to begin on pre-production for her second album, which will be called ‘Limbo”. It is at this point that Kara’s dad, ex-miner David, explained why he wants to hear from volunteers to make it happen.
“Putting out the first album took an awful lot out of the very few people in'Team Kara', and I can't allow that to happen again. I’m in this for long term and I’m prepared to bring everybody together to make it happen. We mustn’t overload such a small number of volunteers again.”
Kara’s ME Tissue Bank Appeal is edging up towards £18,000 but many thousands more will be required to reinvigorate post-mortem research into M.E. Her fund is being ringfenced by The ME Association within our Ramsay Research Fund against the day when it can be used for the purpose that Kara wanted.
KARA'S NEW ALBUM – CAN YOU HELP?
As many of you know, Kara was working on her second album when she died. Thanks to her amazing production team the album is being completed posthumously, and we hope that it will be released in the coming months.
We are looking for volunteers to help with promoting the album. In particular we would welcome people with skills and experience in any of the following areas:
WEBSITE MAINTENANCE. Keeping the site up to date by posting new information when necessary. (Familiarity with WordPress would be ideal.)
CONTENT CREATION. Creating short videos/reels, graphics and other content to help promote the album across social media.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT. Posting updates to Kara’s social media channels, monitoring the accounts, etc.
PRESS LIAISON. Contacting and corresponding with journalists and media outlets.
Some of these jobs could overlap, but experience has shown that it’s too much for one person to attempt all of them alone. Ideally we would like a small team of people who could work alongside one other, together with Kara’s family and the ME Association press office. A good knowledge of severe ME is important, or at least a willingness to learn.
If you think you might be able to help, please get in touch by CLICKING ON THIS LINK.
Please include links to examples of previous work you might have done along these lines.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Thank you,
Team Kara
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
