A CONCERT in aid of a charity that helps sick children through music therapy takes place in Durham next month.

The renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet will perform The Seven Last Words by Haydn on Tuesday, March 26, in St Oswald's Church.

This performance, just before Easter, is aimed at raising money for Jessie's Fund, a charity formed after the death in 1994 of Jessica George.

She was just nine when she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. In response to her plight, funds were raised to pay for expensive treatment for abroad, but she died before the money could be put to its intended use.

During her last week, Jessie and her family found love, care and support at Martin House, the children's hospice near Wetherby, but she missed her beloved music.

It soon became apparent that none of the children's hospices around the UK offered music therapy, and after Jessie's death, it was agreed that the money she had helped to raise should be put to a wider purpose.

The main aim of the fund is that all children in a hospice should have access to music therapy. It has equipped all 24 hospices in the UK with instruments and, in addition, 15 have benefited from a part-time music therapist.

There are no tickets for the Durham concert, but the audience will be able to make donations at the end of the performance.

Founded in 1968 by four Cambridge graduates, the Fitzwilliam became well-known through its close personal association with Dmitri Shostakovich, who befriended the players after he heard them play in York.

The composer entrusted them with the Western premieres of his last three quartets, and before long they had become the first group to perform and record all 15.

These recordings, which gained many international awards, secured for the quartet a world-wide concert schedule and long-term contract with Decca which culminated in a Beethoven cycle.

It is one of the few string quartets in Britain using classical instruments for the appropriate repertoire and is, perhaps, unique in that it performs on both historical and modern instruments.

The Fitzwilliam was re-established in January, 1996, with two younger players, plus two from the early Seventies still involved.

Not all young lives can be saved by modern medicine, but music therapy can significantly enhance the quality of the precious time that these children have.

Through Jessie's Fund, children throughout the UK can have the opportunity to experience the life-enhancing spirit of music.