Young Leeds Travellers in charity tribute - Yorkshire

From the Yorkshire Evening Post

A musical tribute has been paid to a late Leeds youth inclusion worker, who helped hundreds of young Travellers overcome barriers in education and achievement.

Around a dozen 12 to 17-year-olds decided to launch charity single in memory of former Leeds Gypsy and Traveller Exchange (GATE) worker and mother-of-three Kathleen Lowther Morrison, who died of advanced cancer aged just 33 last year.

The group of young Travellers, which includes Kathleen’s sons Mandy and John-William, penned the song themselves and are now hoping the tribute inspires others to donate directly to Cancer Research UK.

The One in a Million song was launched at an event for friends and family at Dewsbury Road Social Club, in Beeston, on Sunday, where more than £1,300 was donated to the charity.

Helen Jones, chief executive officer at Leeds GATE, told the YEP: “It’s a fitting tribute and I think it’s also very brave – it shows the fact that she has instilled that confidence in the young people to do that.

“Even though she recognised that her community did have major obstacles she would not sit back and accept things the way that they were and she wanted the best for the young people in her community.”

The single, which is aimed at encouraging direct donations to the charity, is available to view on YouTube and was produced with the help of Leeds-based Pipeline Productions.

Ms Jones added: “She was a person absolutely full to bursting with life and energy and action – she was quite fearless.”

Last March more than 600 people attended St Francis of Assissi Church, in Beeston Hill, to pay their last respects to Kathleen, who died after a six-month battle with cancer.

The flamboyant ceremony saw six white horses pull a Cinderella-style glass carriage containing a white mirrored coffin through the streets of Leeds.