Iron Maiden Help Out Ex-Drummer Diagnosed with MS
He hasn’t drummed for Iron Maiden since the early ’80s, but Clive Burr is still in his former bandmates’ thoughts. In fact, as bassist Steve Harris revealed during a recent interview, Burr has been the focus of some of Maiden’s main fundraising efforts.
“We have been involved with stuff over the years,” Harris shrugged when talking with Samaritan Mag about the band’s charity work. A lot of people make a big publicity thing out of it and we don’t, so I’d rather not say, [but] one of the things I can talk about because we started it off is our old drummer.”
Explained Harris, “Clive has MS [multiple sclerosis], so we started The Clive Burr Trust. Another friend of mine also has got it. He’s in a wheelchair. We went to school with him, my oldest friend since I was five years old, so we helped him, but we don’t normally talk too much about it.”
Aside from the Clive Burr Trust, which the band established in 2002, Burr has helped fund research and medical costs via Clive Aid, a concert series he’s helped oversee since 2004.
“The fans know about it and they contribute to it, and every now and again we’ll do a show and just donate all the money,” Harris said of the Trust. “When we need to top it up, we do something.”
As Samaritan Mag explains in the article, Burr has benefited greatly from the fund, receiving money that’s helped him keep his house, travel for treatment, and pay for specialized equipment that allows him to remain mobile despite the effects of his disease — and other acquaintances of the band who have MS, such as the longtime friend Harris referenced at the start of the interview, have also received help.
“Some of them get [MS] very mildly,” explained Harris, “but unfortunately the friend I was talking about has it really really bad. He’s in a wheelchair for a long time, and Clive is getting worse.”
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