Love Hope Strength
Declaration’s chosen charity is the Love Hope Strength (LHS) foundation. It promotes innovative, music-related, outreach and awareness programmes for leukaemia and cancer sufferers, survivors and their families.
Led by volunteers, fuelled by music and camaraderie, and propelled by a desire to give back and create positive change, LHS strives to provide those it serves with a lifeline.
The foundation was co-founded in 2006 by the internationally acclaimed musician and healthcare campaigner Mike Peters after he was diagnosed with leukaemia, his fellow musician and wife Jules (who has since undergone treatment for breast cancer) and their friend James Chippendale who had received a lifesaving bone marrow transplant following his own leukaemia diagnosis.
In 2007, LHS established its ‘Rocks’ hike series. Over the years, thousands of people, including prominent musicians, have taken part in hikes organised in the name of LHS to raise not only money but also people’s spirits during and post cancer treatment.
In June 2024, Declaration’s co-founders Amanda and Richard Warrilow took part in “El Camino Rocks”, walking the last 70km of Camino Francé (the most popular route of the Camino de Santiago) over the course of three days. Declaration donated over £4,400 and Amanda and Richard raised over £1,300 of additional sponsorship money.
Get on the List
A key part of LHS’s activities is to encourage people between the ages of 17 and 55 to register as blood stem cell donors.
There are currently around 37,000 people searching for a blood stem cell donation worldwide: but currently only 0.4% of the worldwide population are registered as potential blood stem cell donors.
All it takes is a cheek swab and a few minutes of your time to register as a potential blood stem cell donor. The chances of being matched with someone are very small but if you are you could help save a life.
If you are based in the UK and interested in registering as a donor you can do so here https://www.dkms.org.uk/register-now.
The Declaration Connection
As mentioned, one of the foundation’s co-founders is Mike Peters. Mike’s battle with cancer has been a particularly challenging one, with early 2025 seeing his immune cells ‘re-programmed’ under Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy (CART) at The Christie Hospital in Manchester. The treatment has been extremely harrowing, as his immune system was effectively rebooted, yet during his time in the hospital Mike wrote and subsequently recorded some incredibly powerful and inspirational music.
Mike is front man of the band The Alarm, which rose to fame in the 1980s, and is perhaps best known for their single Sixty-Eight Guns. An eponymous EP aside, the band’s debut album is called Declaration, from which our agency takes its name.
During recent years we have come to know Jules and Mike Peters very well, and Richard (“Rick”) Warrilow has had the privilege of playing guitar with Mike on two occasions.