A FORMER military musician has raised nearly £20,000 for charity thanks to a remarkable musical marathon.

Guy Booth held the "music-athon" on Friday, July 1 from 7pm until 7pm on Saturday, July 2 in Wem Scout Hall to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease Association and Severn Hospice.

Guy's wife Kelly was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and he decided to hold the day-long jam session as a means of reaising money for the charity that has supported her.

The ex-military musician said he was pleased with how the event went.

He said: "I'm very, very happy with how it went, it couldn't have been better outcome really.

"We have had so much support in the place, online and obviously donations, stuff like that it has been quite remarkable.

"We feel very blessed with how things have gone and all of the technical stuff amazingly worked which was a real relief."

Guy said plenty of people visited to watch him and his fellow musicians perform, as he tinkled the ivories on the piano among other instruments.

He added: "We had the dark hours between 2am and 5am where it was literally us in the hut, about six of us in the hut keeping things going playing, singing and having a laugh and trying to keep each other motivated and awake.

"But other than that period, we had people coming in and out at different times for most of the time.

"And then on the Saturday as the day wore on more and more people started to come and again they were coming and going as the event wore on."

The father-of-two said the amount of money they have raised has continued to increase.

He said: "It is still going up funnily enough, our latest update we have raised £15,622 plus £2,611.15 gift aid.

"We are at £18,200 odd now. We are going to leave it open for another week probably.

"We are going to post different clips from the event and see whether the next week will bring in a little bit more and keep people's interest in what we did.

"It has been a remarkable response from everybody, if you think about the fact it was for a 24-hour period and we raised about £5000 before we even started.

"It has been pretty remarkable really."

Guy said he and fellow musicians had received a support from organisations in Wem.

He added: "We also had support of the scouts and people from a couple of the different churches were providing cakes for the morning.

"A lot of community spirit really and a real feeling of support from different areas in the community which was just super."

You can donate to Motor Neurone Disease Association and Severn Hospice via https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/the-longest-music-jam-in-town