Rockstars support Scottish still birth charity campaign

Picture: Auntie Emma McLaughlin, Uncle Mark Stickland, Cousin Virgil Franchetti, Nanna Elaine McLaughlin, Grandad Jimbo McLaughlin, Mum Kimi Lambah, Dad James McLaughlin, Auntie Sharon Franchetti, Uncle Craig Allison and Auntie Jackie Allison

James was given the nickname ‘Lentil’ due to his tiny size when parents Kimi Lambah and James McLaughlin found out they were expecting.

Lentil was sadly born sleeping in October 2014.

Following their experience, Kimi and James decided to focus their attention on helping families who are going through a similar hardship.

Picture: Motorhead's Lemmy supported Lentil Rocks

“Lentil’s Auntie Emma McLaughlin came up with the idea of Lentil Rocks, which would be a fundraising organisation that could spread awareness and raise money for charities such as Sands”, James’s uncle Mark Strickland explains.

“Emma and I thought the best way to get Lentil Rocks noticed was to gain support from rock bands and rock stars. I work in the music industry as a tour manager on the road, and through friends and colleagues also in the music industry I have contacts for other tour managers, band managers and the bands themselves.

“So many people have been so generous with their time and effort and it certainly gets the word out there to people who would never have seen our fundraiser.”

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Picture: Slash of Guns N Roses displays his Lentil Rocks sign

Since embarking on their Lentil Rocks journey, rock stars including Lemmy from Motorhead, Slash from Guns n Roses, Kaiser Chiefs and Papa Roach have helped spread for the word.

The campaign aims to raise money and awareness for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity supports anyone affected by the death of a baby, works to improve the care bereaved parents receive and promotes research to reduce the loss of babies’ lives.

“In addition to these artists taking photo’s with a Lentil Rocks sign, many have also donated items for auction including signed guitars from Kerry King from Slayer, the Kaiser Chiefs and soon we’ll have one from Black Stone Cherry. We’ll also have amongst other items, signed Motorhead goodies like tshirts, drum sticks and headphones, drum heads from Airbourne, Black Stone Cherry, Him, Clutch and Black Spiders, from Slash we have a signed T-shirt and lots of other memorabilia on the way.

“All these will soon be on our Ebay page with can be accessed though www.lentilrocks.com which is where you can see all the rock star photos as well as links to Facebook, Instagram and Just Giving.”

Lentil Rocks have organised a number of events including a Lentil memorial football match, a quiz night and an upcoming Lentil Rocks Raffle, which takes place on February 21st at St Andrew’s in the Square, Glasgow.

The raffle will be hosted by Canadian stand-up comedian Craig Campbell who is set to go on tour with Frankie Boyle, with £7,000 worth of prizes on offer including three sets of return flights from Jet2, Brussels Airways and Logan Air and family tickets to Lego Land and Alton Towers.

Lentil’s family and friends have already been hard at work raising money. Cousins Caleb and Evan raised money doing a mini mudder, cousin Virgil did a toddler dash, several family friends ran the Scottish Great Run and, biggest of all, lots of family and friends got together to play a charity football match. All donations and t-shirt sales combined has seen Lentil Rocks raise about £15,000.

“It been a tough, year long journey for Lentil’s auntie Emma contacting companies,gathering the all the prizes and organising the raffle but we hope all the hard work will pay off on the 21st. For every one company that donated a prize there’s a hundred who said “no” or simply ignored us.”

Stillbirth rates have declined across most of Europe in recent years but there were 3,286 babies stillborn in the UK in 2013. Scotland has one of the highest rates of stillbirth rates in the developed world, with one in 200 pregnancies ending in a stillbirth.