The South Wales Argus approached Shannon in July 1996 requesting their support to launch the Childline (Cymru/Wales) Argus Appeal to the public for financial donations in order to keep the Childline telephone counselling service ongoing. Childline could only answer 3,000 calls per day in Wales even though 10,000 calls were made. They desperately needed to raise £10,000 in order to train more volunteers. Shannon immediately agreed to help by organising a fund-raising concert, which was to prove hugely successful, and so a second concert was staged, November of the same year, which again raised huge amounts of cash towards the appeal.

Then came the Argus appeal for little Jordy Dykes whose mother had asked for help in raising funds to pay for much needed medical treatment in Miami, Florida. Jordy suffers from a rare genetic disorder, which causes severe development delay. The pioneering treatment, which is not available in Britain, involves swimming with the Dolphins and has proved to increase the chances of growth development. Shannon staged a concert, which turned out to be highly successful in raising well over £1000 towards the appeal.

Other fund-raising events include Royal Gwent Special Care Unit, Orthopaedic Unit, Spinabifita Research, Variety Club of Great Britain, Children in Need, Chernobyl Orphanage Appeal and Gwent Social Services all with great success.

(Shannon gratefully acknowledge all the volunteers behind the scenes, who helped with the huge amount of work and organisation that went into each event, all those who generously made donations through cash or otherwise. We thank you all for your much needed support.)