Love Hope Strength Foundation is a charitable foundation whose purpose is to raise funds and awareness in order to benefit people with cancer and leukaemia. The charity sponsors treks and climbs to the world's highest mountains, often performing musical concerts at the peak.

Origins

In the spring of 2001, at age 31,

James Chippendale James Chippendale (born around 1969) is an American business executive and anti-leukemia campaigner and co-founder of the charity Love Hope Strength Foundation. He is also founder and CEO of an entertainment and sports insurance broker, CSI Enterta ...

, an American businessman, was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, needing a

bone marrow transplant Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce ...

to recover. After his recovery in 2003, he founded a cancer charity, the Love Hope Strength Foundation (LHSF), with fellow survivor Mike Peters, a Welsh musician and lead singer with

The Alarm The Alarm are a Welsh rock band that formed in Rhyl, Wales, in 1981. Initially formed as a punk band, the Toilets, in 1977, under lead vocalist Mike Peters, the band soon embraced arena rock and included marked influences from Welsh language ...

. Mike is a 3-time cancer survivor and an internationally acclaimed singer for the Welsh rock band

. Together they had the vision that LHSF could literally, “Save lives, one concert at a time!”

Activities

The charity raises funds for cancer treatment, promotes awareness and early detection, and advocates for bone marrow registration by holding rock concerts at remote, elevated venues, including

Everest base camp There are two base camps on Mount Everest, on opposite sides of the mountains: South Base Camp is in Nepal at an altitude of (), while North Base Camp is in Tibet, China at (). The base camps are rudimentary campsites at the base of Mount Eve ...

, the top of the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

, the Inca ruins of

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain range.UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, which ...

, with a concert at

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

in 2009. The UK organisation holds an annual summer trek to the top of Wales's highest mountain,

Snowdon Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (historic ...

, called ''Snowdon Rocks'', and to this have been added a number of other events, including ''Rhondda Rocks'', ''Avebury Rocks'' and ''Ben Nevis Rocks''. LHSF concerts feature both amateur and professional musicians and have featured high-profile rock musicians including

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

The Fixx The Fixx are a rock band from London, England, founded in 1979. The band's hits include "One Thing Leads to Another", "Saved by Zero", "Are We Ourselves?", and "Secret Separation", each of which charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, ...

Cy Curnin Cyril John Curnin (born 12 December 1957, Wimbledon, England) is a singer/songwriter and musician and is the lead vocalist for the new wave music group, the Fixx. As a songwriter, he has co-written over a dozen songs that have appeared on the ' ...

, Squeeze's

Glenn Tilbrook Glenn Martin Tilbrook (born 31 August 1957) is the lead singer and guitarist of the English band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid-1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally wrote the music for Squeeze's son ...

, Everclear, The Beat,

Nick Harper Nick Harper (born 22 June 1965) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the son of English folk musician Roy Harper. Early life Harper was born in London, England, to the folk singer-songwriter Roy Harper. Nick tells of how he ...

, Chris Summerill and members of

The Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...

. The first four shows had raised almost $1 million by September 2008. LHSF is a beneficiary of a documentary film called ''More To Live For'', which details James Chippendale's cancer and survivorship experience.

References

External links

Love Hope Strength
Official site (USA)
Love Hope Strength
Official site (UK)
Love Hope Strength
Official site (Australia) Cancer organizations based in the United States Medical and health organizations based in Colorado {{charity-stub