British soul star Beverley Knight is to perform at a charity ball to raise cash in honour of her late pal, singer/songwriter LYNDEN DAVID HALL, who died of cancer four years ago.
The Shoulda Woulda Coulda hitmaker was devastated when Hall, who appeared as a wedding singer alongside Keira Knightley in 2003 movie Love Actually, lost his battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2006, aged 31.
The singer is hoping to raise funds for British charity MACmillan Cancer Support by headlining a glitzy event in London on Wednesday night (10Nov10) - and she's going to find the performance particularly emotional because the show will be dedicated to Hall.
She tells British TV host Lorraine Kelly, "I'm performing for the MACmillan Enchanted Ball... They're incredible, the work they do and tonight's their big fundraising annual ball that they do. Hopefully we're going to get in excess of a quarter of a million (pounds) and I'm doing my bit.
"Lynden David Hall was not only a fantastic singer/songwriter (and) musician, but he was a friend and he died very, very young. It was Hodgkin's lymphoma, and I remember going down to see him at the Royal Marsden hospital, and they did wonderful work with him... Their care was holistic, obviously they were trying to beat the cancer, but they looked after him and his welfare and his whole being and his wife and everything... To lose him was... (he was) way too young... it was painful.
"When I get on that stage tonight I'll be thinking of my good friend Lynden... So this is very personal tonight, very personal."