MONTEGO BAY St James –

A number of artistes from western Jamaica will on Saturday donate their talent to a fund-raising concert to benefit a trio of cancer-stricken employees from the Customs Department in Montego Bay.

The concert which will be staged at the Seventh Day Adventist Conference Centre in Mount Salem, is being planned by the victims’ colleagues, in collaboration with the Optimist Club of Rosehall.

It is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm.

In addition to the Jamaica Customs choirs, songbird, Karen Smith; popular groups, Khalil and SLR; Paul Blake; Gospel groups New Generation and Acapella Flames; Audley Scott and Comedy Bus’ Dwight Samuels are among the artistes on the line-up.

“We came up with the idea last December in a brain-storming session to decide how best to help,” explained Kingsley Henry, a supervisor at the Customs department.

One of the victims, 22-year-old Lamar Whittaker who is employed to the department as a clerical officer, was diagnosed with the bone cancer last year.

Consequently, he had to undergo surgery to amputate one of his legs with a view to arresting the disease.

Now, although he’s still getting used to the idea of adjusting to deal with the change of scenario, he’s willing to talk about his experience with a view to educating and encouraging others.

“It’s not the end of the world, although when you are in this position it’s way different from when somebody is telling you about it,” he told the Observer West, adding that although he anticipated a scaling down of his social activities, he was looking forward to attending Saturday’s concert.

Presold tickets for ‘Concert 2 Cure’ will cost $800 for adults and $1000 at the gate, while individuals with identification cards proving that they are 18 years of age or under will be required to pay $500.