A singer-songwriter is hoping to raise as much money as possible for charity with his new album.

Ruffdog (Shep) Elliott, an artist with Dorchester's Grinning Dog Records, has released 'Letters In The Rain' as a tribute to his wife, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He said: "My wife, Kim, got ill, she started struggling with her breathing and ended up in hospital, it seemed like it may be pneumonia… then we were told they had found some shadowing on the lung. We lived in hope.

"The news floored us when it came, lung cancer and it was terminal, we had hit a wall that even we couldn't get over.

"We have remained upbeat, positive and tried to grasp life as much as possible, living for every moment. I made plans for us to go to Scotland, a place we both have so wanted to see for many years, even talk of moving to live there, then Covid-19 happened, our travel plans scuppered. Of course, we thought we still had a few years to try again.

"Kim was told the treatment had not been working and they couldn't see any benefit of continuing, she has been given months now, we won't make those trips those plans.

"I wrote a song during lockdown and then another and a little idea started to grow, 'could I write an album, record it somehow and sell it to raise money for a cancer charity?' a sort of legacy for Kim.

"I had no idea how, then Nick and Grace from Grinning Dog Records and Echo Town Studios got involved after an initial chat, they couldn't do enough and have not only been instrumental in helping me create this album, but gave me something to live for. Something that I can do, because as a partner watching someone you love suffer it makes you feel so helpless."

The CDs are available from Grinning Dog Records for £10 and 100 per cent of the profits will go to the Roy Castle Lung Foundation.

"This isn't much, I know it's not going to change the world, but if it can help raise a pound then it's a pound that wasn't there before and that's good.

"This is for Kim. Because when I think of our life together and the joy we have known, and the overwhelming sense of dread at the thought of losing her, well it is like reading love letters in the rain."

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