Given To Live

IamTom

https://youtu.be/_uBNCQPRU88

IamTom

Over the next while I'll be saying more about Given To Live, why we do what we do and why I started GTL.

For now, enjoy a few moments from a few of the shows we've taken people to.

Tom
GTL

hedonist

Cheers and happy new year, Tom.

Looking forward

RunIntoTheRain

Great video. What GTL does is so amazing. Keep on Tom. Thank you.

Pap

Happy 2017 Tom! Keep up the good work!

eloviate

Met Tom for the first time today (random coffee shop encounter), what fantastic work this man is responsible for!

IamTom

eloviate said:

Met Tom for the first time today (random coffee shop encounter), what fantastic work this man is responsible for!

Only just seen this. Thank you

Was fun to meet you as well. Forgot the gig you said to check out?

IamTom

The Beginning Of Given To Live...why we do what we do.


I was sat on a bus during the summer of 2013 when Pearl Jam's Alive came on. I'd heard Alive hundreds, if not thousands of times but this time was different and I started to cry. Deeply, openly on a bus in the Swedish countryside. I cried with wonder at being alive.

It was almost seven years since I'd overdosed and if I'd been alone I wouldn't have made it. That was the back end of a three year relapse that led to homelessness, some time sleeping rough, overdoses and utter hopelessness. That October, 2006, I stopped using and drinking. Seven years later I was sat on a bus with tears streaming down my face in wonder and I knew I wanted to honour my journey, my life, me. But how?

The answer came very quickly. My favourite band were touring in November in the US, one of the shows was on my 46th birthday. Go! Go, Tom, and do your favourite thing. Be with friends at Pearl Jam shows. So I booked flights, found tickets, hooked up with other fans who were doing a road trip and on 19th November, in Phoenix, I started a five show run that ended in Oakland on my birthday. 179 songs and 78 unique Pearl Jam songs later (we like our stats in the PJ community), an incident in Oakland where somebody needed help, feeling good about myself because I'd given myself a great gift and the idea for Given To Live started to form.

I realised how incredibly lucky I was to be in a position to give myself such a gift. That I had a job that paid me enough to be free to make that decision. That physically and mentally I was mostly ok.

It would have been easy to tell myself that I work hard so I can do what I like with the money but there was a realisation it is pure chance I am me. I could have been born in a war torn country, into poverty, into famine. I could have suffered brain damage from all the alcohol and drug abuse. I could be dead.

So I thought I wanted to give what I gave to myself to others. To others that may need help, support, encouragement. That deserve their day in the sun, their show. And that what we want to create is something beautiful that honours and celebrates the person we take to a show, that it's their day, their moment.

I went to my first gig when I was 15 with a friend from school. I jumped on the tube and went to the Hammersmith Odeon. I've walked to shows up the road, jumped on trains and planes. It's not that simple for everyone and that's one of the reasons for GTL, to make things simple. If you're in a wheelchair just getting on a train can be a huge deal, if you have mental health issues it can be enormous. So GTL supports, assists, enables things to be easier, to be possible.

That's why we exist. To make gigs possible for those who need help getting there, to create something beautiful, to give someone their day in the sun.

Tom
GTL

hedonist

Thank you for sharing of yourself, and your path, and the good you do for others because you can, because you want to.

IamTom

hedonist said:

Thank you for sharing of yourself, and your path, and the good you do for others because you can, because you want to.

Thank you

IamTom

Our last one, Luke at A7X.

Full story of the day -

https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1645595685456983

https://youtu.be/HNGkRZGNHO4

IamTom

Adam, 14yo undergoing treatment for bone cancer is going to Iron Maiden -

https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1650671474949404

IamTom

Kid In The Dark.

Shetland doesn't have trees.

It's out in the middle of the sea, way past Scotland with Norway over to the right. Coos are the same as cows but that's how it's said and Raans, cod's roe, is a traditional dish.

Shetland is also home to Aimee. She's fifteen, loves her music, has pink dipped hair, wears plenty of black, will be seeing All Time Low in Edinburgh next month and is a very courageous young lady.

Full story -

https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1689981247685093

IamTom

Harry's Castle In Amsterdam.

Full story here -

https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1711152095568008

IamTom

HesCalledDyer

Awesome work, Tom!

IamTom

Thank you  

IamTom

HesCalledDyer said:

Awesome work, Tom!

Thank you  

IamTom

Article in Metal Hammer on Given To Live and Adam at Maiden - 

http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-06-02/how-given-to-live-is-spreading-the-gift-of-music 

IamTom

Given To Live are taking someone to Eddie, London 1. 

Jamie's Pearl. 

A loving parent suffers their child's aches and pains. A cough turns into a fever and a parent's heart aches with questions that can only be answered when the fever has broken. 

Jamie and Rachel got in touch with Given To Live after their 10yo daughter Pearl had been diagnosed with metastatic Ewings Sarcoma, a serious form of bone cancer. Pearl is currently undergoing radiotherapy and further chemo.

They got in touch to see if GTL could take Pearl to a show - we will, we're working out a plan and the best show for Pearl with mum and dad. 

We have also offered mum and dad a show for them so they can have a night for themselves to have a break. They said yes, after all the treatment is over. 

Then we discovered Jamie is a Pearl Jam fan and that the family would be staying in London while Pearl is having radiotherapy at the same time Eddie Vedder is playing Hammersmith and Jamie could get away for the evening. 

So Jamie will be GTL's guest at Ed's show on the 6th. It won't make everything ok, it won't stop the agony and uncertainty, the powerlessness. 

But for a few hours music, Jamie's music, will be his companion. A companion that can loosen and dry tears, soothe an aching heart, whisper and gently embrace, let free the terror and rage at a world that right now is asking unutterable questions. 

Jamie, Rachel, Pearl and younger brother Milo.

Jamie, Rachel, Pearl and younger brother Milo.

hedonist

Even a few hours are precious - it's no crime to escape