Bec's Freddie For A Day Donation Page!

Freddie For A Day is a celebration of the life of Freddie Mercury which falls around his birthday date (or whenever I get the chance!). It is meant to engage members of the public in a fun way to remember one of our greatest artists, but behind it is the earnest purpose of raising funds to support the continued work in fighting HIV & AIDS worldwide through the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the HIV & AIDS charitable organisation set up in Freddie’s memory after his passing nearly 25 years ago. I support the charity as much as I can all year round so the moustache gets an airing quite often - details can be found in my blog:

http://www.mercuryphoenixtrust.com/site/blogs

In 2010 I only found out about the new FFAD initiative a couple of weeks before Sept 3rd and it fell on my holiday to the Nürburgring in Germany with retro cars but as I have always supported the charity I really wanted to take part. I made a 1986 Live At Wembley costume by dying a military jacket yellow, sewing red and gold ribbon onto a pair of white trousers, a black wig to hide my own hair and drew on a moustache with eyeliner which I managed to wear the whole day, even though we were staying on a campsite.

2011 I had more time to plan and decided to spend the day in Montreux, Switzerland where I had never been before but had seen the images on the Made in Heaven album and stories about the Freddie Mercury statue and memorial day and wanted to go. Due to commitments at home we flew out very early on the Sunday after no sleep and caught the last few hours of the memorial weekend. I had made a Living On My Own Freddie costume from various unusual things including gold painted cricket boxes and curtain ties and it went down a storm with Queen fans I met when I wore it on Sept 5th. I followed it up by getting sponsored for wearing the outfit again to a classic mini show and the fan club’s Freddie Mercury Clapham Grand Tribute concert.

2012 I started in July by attending a Queen and Adam Lambert gig in my old Wembley costume and a poster on my bag to advertise FFAD to hopefully get people to join in. I attended the whole weekend of the Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day and made a new costume for each day so the first day was Live Aid Freddie, the second was 1979 shiny leather Freddie and Live At The Bowl Freddie costume for day three. I returned to the UK and on Sept 5th itself I had a stroll around London in the 1979 shiny leather Freddie outfit, visiting Madame Tussauds and bringing it to a standstill before helping with the collection for the Mercury Phoenix Trust at the end of the evening We Will Rock You show at the Dominion Theatre. Later that year I wore the leather costume again to help with the London Street Collection for the MPT. The year was topped off by Diana Moseley, Freddie’s costume designer, awarding me a gold record for the 1979 shiny leather costume I made and the Official International Queen Fan Club writing an article about my FFAD adventures for the charity in their magazine.

2013 I decided to combine my love of baking with my love of raising money for the charity so I had my first ever cake stall which my friends helped with, then more friends helped again to put together a handmade item stall which I ran at the Queen convention in April whilst wearing various costumes. September 5th I spent the day in London in the 'It's a Hard Life' costume visiting many tourist attractions then flew to Montreux for the Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day with two more costumes: red trousers and blue kneepads and a female version of the Wembley costume. November 30th saw the London Street Collection again for the MPT so me, Bensch, Anne and Pete helped Maureen with collection tins outside of the Dominion Theatre. I wore a warm version of the 'Living On My Own' costume.

2014 events started in May, I made and wore the 'Radio Ga Ga' outfit (my 10th costume!) for the first Freddie For A Day weekend in Montreux organised by the SEG in May. In June I made the King Freddie of Wembley costume and ribbon'ed it up for the London Pride Parade where me and Oli joined in to help the National AIDS Trust march, a charity the MPT has raised money for. In July I packed all my costumes and caught an early train to London for models to wear them for a MPT photoshoot, I even ended up in one myself as the prawn again! I made a last minute ''Live at the Rainbow' 1974 costume for the Freddie For A Day event at the Hard Rock Café London on September 3rd, the preview screening of the Live At The Rainbow concert including the claw glove with real diamonds ;). It was my first attempt at the long hair and no moustache Freddie! The last event this year was at the Queen Fan Club convention where I helped with the Mercury Phoenix Trust raffle all weekend, I repaired the King's cape after it had been dragged through wet roads during London Pride and wore that outfit, Radio Gaga and the Live At The Rainbow costume over the weekend. My Just Giving page reached over £5000 for the charity! Thank you!

2105 saw the first official Freddie Mercury Birthday Party at the casino in Montreux, the theme was Black and White and to dress in the spirit of Freddie himself so I went through black and white costumes and settled on the 'Body Language' video costume. The costume took a long time to make because I had a lot going on but I just managed to finish it in time and spent a fantastic evening with friends and reached over £6000 for the Mercury Phoenix Trust! Incredible!

This year is Freddie's 70th birthday so Montreux is buzzing with special events for this. I've made the Knebworth royal outfit because it just about fits in with the yellow theme of the official birthday party, it's awesome enough for his 70th and it's also the last outfit he wore when he appeared live on stage with Queen 30 years ago. I can't wait to see so many friends to celebrate a unique talent on his birthday and to raise money for a charity I love.

Photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24801027@N02/sets/

A massive thank you again to everyone who has sponsored me so far and supported the charity stalls - not just for looking special as one of my heros but also to help raise even more money for a brilliant charity. Please can I ask you once again to dig deep and sponsor my continued antics for the charity and in return I'll try and make you proud with my commitment to the cause.

Many thanks for all your support, it means the world to me.

Bec =) x