THE first new Rookwood Festival organised by married Hampshire actors Sarah Parish and James Murray has raised over 15,000 for Charity.

The huge fundraiser that took place in the village of Medstead kicked off The Murray Parish Trust’s #2MillionSteps appeal to raise £2million needed to build the new Children’s Emergency and Trauma Unit at Southampton University Hospital. The #2MillionSteps appeal officially launched on June 7 at the House of Commons, London, attended by Chancellor George Osborne.

This major first step in the #2MillionSteps appeal was made possible by generous sponsors and donors and a crowd of close to 1000 who enjoyed music from two live stages featuring the likes of Dodgy, Ward Thomas, Head North and Deborah Bonham, rounded of in style with Fast & Frank, from Fun Lovin’ Criminals, DJ Set.

Sarah Parish, who founded The Murray Parish Trust with James Murray was overwhelmed by the response, “It’s been an amazing experience and a lot of hard work but everyone has had a fabulous time. We can’t thank everyone enough for supporting us and coming along and helping to raise such a incredible sum of over £15000. We’re already being asked if we’re going to do it all again, we really hope to. #2MillionSteps is off to a stomping start."

And she announced another novel idea for raising more:" We need to raise awareness as well as cash so what we’re asking everyone to do is tweet their feet. Summer is here so just snap your feet, doesn’t matter what they look like, and then nominate two other friends to do the same. It’s like ice bucket but nowhere near as cold! Look out for the campaign on twitter #2MillionSteps.”

James Murray added “We did so well for our first music festival. It’s a two year appeal to raise the £2million matched funding. Rookwood was a fantastic fundraiser, so watch this space. We’d love to do it again. Key now is our big #2MillionSteps appeal. We’ll be tweeting our foot selfies to get it going and we’d love everyone to take a step and get behind #2MillionSteps in whatever way they can. The simplest is to post a fun foot selfie with ?#?2MillionSteps and please? text TMPT16 £5, or any amount, to 70070. In the end its all our Children’s Specialist Hospital and Emergency and Trauma Unit. We can’t build it without your help and support.”

Sarah Parish and James Murray founded The Murray Parish Trust in memory of their late daughter Ella-Jayne who died of congenital heart failure in 2009. When they are not working in the film and TV world they dedicate their time to raising funds for the charity.

Since 2009 The Murray Parish Trust have raised over £300,000 for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital Southampton. These vital funds have gone directly towards funding a full time counsellor for parents whose children have been admitted to the unit, a specialist helicopter gurney designed to transport critically ill infants to and from the hospital on board the children’s air ambulance and the provision of 2 new bed spaces.

Please visit www.themurrayparishtrust.com for more information, news and events or to donate. For Rookwood updates please visit www.rookwoodfestival.co.uk