News of gala fundraising concert on 2004-03-05: Vancouver, Fairmont Hotel; fundraiser for Vancouver General Hospital - with Diana Krall
The Province, 2004-01-19
- John Bermingham

 

Krall honouring her mom's life

John Bermingham
The Province
Sunday, January 18, 2004

Diana, Elvis and Sir Elton will be crooning at an exclusive gala concert in aid of Vancouver General Hospital. The sold-out black-tie dinner and show costs between $500 and $1,000 a ticket. The lucky 600 donors who'll be at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on March 5 were invited to buy the tickets and have already snapped them up.

Nanaimo's Diana Krall, new husband Elvis Costello and Krall's pal, Elton John, are doing the benefit concert for the hospital's leukemia/bone marrow transplant program. Krall's mom Adella helped start the fundraiser six years ago, before she succumbed to cancer in 2002.

"This event is about celebrating life and love," said Krall, 39, in a statement released Friday.

"We are very grateful to the hospital for the care she received and the extra precious years we had with her."

Krall has raised $500,000 for the hospital in previous concerts, which was used to buy medical equipment and help out-of-town patients.

"She just really wanted to give back," said event spokeswoman Michelle Welygan yesterday.

"It's something she felt really strongly about, that the hospital had given so much to her mother, and she wanted to repay them somehow."

This will be the first concert for VGH since her mom passed away.

"It will be very bittersweet for her," said Welygan. "She really wants to go on and honour her mother."

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