I decided long ago never to walk in
anyone’s shadow.
The Greatest Love Project was conceived on the steps of the British Museum in January 1997
following a chance encounter between Granville Lee-Warner and an elderly American couple
from Memphis, Tennessee.
If I fail, if I succeed
They told Granville about St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and he searched high and
low in London for more information about this Nobel Prize winning institution. The
libraries, the British Medical Association and the main children's charities of Great
Britain could not readily give him information about St. Jude's work.
At least I lived as I believe.
Astonished and frustrated by this, Granville endeavoured to start a project that would
raise awareness of the work of different national and international charities, primarily
for the benefit of parents with children that might need the immediate expertise of any
such institution.
No matter what they take from
me,
Initially he proposed joint annual fund raising events which would link diverse children's
charities together under a Greatest Love 'umbrella'. These events would serve to raise
awareness about the expertise of the charities whilst also advocating the sharing of
medical/care expertise between them.
They can’t take away my dignity.
The first Greatest Love event was scheduled for St.
Valentine's day 1998, proposing to 'unite' London's Great Ormond Street Children's
Hospital with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At the time the President of Great
Ormond Street was Princess Diana, but following her untimely death in August 1997 the
project collapsed due to a sudden loss of sponsorship interest and lack of celebrity
support. The final blow was St. Judes' withdrawal in November 1997 due to the insecure
developments following Princess Diana's death.
Granville turned to the U.S.A. for support and received it from Mr. Theodore J. Forstmann,
who had once discussed the idea of an international children's Foundation with Princess
Diana.
So on 14th February 1998 The Greatest Love Project was launched at the Victoria &
Albert Museum with a major fund raising event for three charities: Great Ormond Street
Children's Hospital, representing the children of the U.K., Give A Child A Toy, helping
the children of the Lebanon and Help Lifeline International, a Greek Foundation based in
London.
The inaugural event combined theatre with music and dinner, starred Jeremy Irons and Niamh
Cusack and introduced a phenomenal 'unknown' singer called Dorothy Umukoro. It was
described by the international press as "an event like no other" and netted
£100,000 for the charities.
The second event was on 13 March, 1999, at the Victoria & Albert Museum with the theme
of 'Butterflies & Dance'. It united KIDS, a British charity for children with special
needs and an international Swiss foundation called the Association Francois-Xavier
Bagnoud, working with deprived children in 17 countries. The event netted over £115,000,
a part of which was used to sponsor a child, Nikola Kolev, for a life saving operation at
Great Ormond Street hospital.
The Greatest Love Gala 2000 was held on 11th May at the Royal Albert Hall, in
the presence of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, uniting the
Chicken Shed Theatre Company, the NSPCC, St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital of Memphis, USA and L'hopital de la Sainte-Famille of Bethlehem,
Palestine. The evening raised GBP £200,000 which was shared between the four
charities. Our creed continues to be "Not just 'our' children, but all
children".
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