19 February 2019

Three members of the NHS are helping to organise the return of a popular music festival which helps homeless and vulnerable people in Shrewsbury.

Back row from left, Karen Higgins, Dave Burrows and Karen Paterson with Tim Compton from Shrewsbury Ark and other members of the Busk organising team

Karen Higgins, Karen Paterson and Dave Burrows are all members of the organising team for The Big Busk, which will take place in Shrewsbury town centre on Saturday 6 April.

The Busk raises money for, and awareness of, Shrewsbury Ark, a centre for vulnerable and homeless people in Shrewsbury which meant a lot to Ben. It is returning in 2019 after taken a year off last year.

The event was founded by Karen Higgins and her sister Annie Hambley in memory of their brother Ben Bebbington, who died after an unprovoked attack in 2012. Ben was a talented musician who used the Shrewsbury Ark during his life.

The 2019 event will take place on the day Ben would have turned 50.

Karen is a Development Manager at Altogether Better, an NHS national network organisation supporting health and care services across the UK. Before that, she was Health Champions manager at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Already, more than 60 acts have signed up for the 2019 event, and the job of scheduling the acts falls to Karen Paterson, a GP Counsellor at Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Dave, who is a senior communications specialist at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) also does the press and PR for the Busk.

The last Big Busk, in 2017, raised more than £8,500 for the Ark, but organisers took a break last year to manage some of the challenges which arise from the event getting bigger each year. The small core organising team also had many personal milestones, including a wedding, new babies, house moves and new jobs.

Karen Higgins said: “We are very exciting excited to be bringing the Big Busk back to Shrewsbury in 2019.

“It is especially poignant that the event should fall on the very day that Ben would have turned 50 and we will making sure that there is a real party atmosphere that Ben would have been very proud of.

“Our basic philosophy has always been the same – you will be able to experience many styles of music all day on 6 April and everything will be free – we only ask that people donate whatever they can afford to support the fantastic work that Shrewsbury Ark does for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”