Despite having battled with Stage 4 prostate cancer for the last 4 years and received the last treatment in October 2023, UK DJ, producer legend, Ashley Beedle was dealt a devastating blow at the beginning of November 2023. He suffered a brain bleed and seizure due to the rupture of a brain mass and in February 2024, during a 16 hour operation to remove the mass, he suffered a major stroke. This caused the loss of movement in the leg and arm on Ashley’s right-hand side and robbed him of his power of speech.
Since recovering in Kings College’s Critical Care unit, Ashley has proved himself to be a fighter and has surmounted all odds with an incredible sense of humour and determination that has impressed everyone involved. Thanks to the extraordinary care and support from the NHS, Ashley’s speech is slowly returning, and he’s been discharged from the residential rehab centre. However, he’ll remain in a room in a nursing home for the foreseeable future until suitable assisted living accommodation becomes available for him and wife, Jo via the local council housing list.
Sadly, the diagnosis is that Ashley’s mobility won’t return to his right side and he will be confined to a wheelchair requiring full time carers for the majority of his activities including bathing and getting in and out of bed. Ashley and his family are now facing the reality of not just the physical and medical challenges, but also the many financial ones, having used all their savings to get to this stage.
In response, Ashley’s friends and family have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help support him through this challenging situation. The fundraiser’s target is £50,000.
The GoFundMe donations will go towards providing Ashley with a secure and comfortable future with access to private physio treatment, wheelchair friendly furniture, and a hospital bed for home use, etc.
Ashley wants you to know that he is a survivor and not a victim and he says ‘thank you’ to all of you who contribute towards the fund.
Referenced in Daft Punk’s ‘Teachers’, Ashley Beedle has been top of his game for over 35 years. From his defining roles in X-Press 2, Black Science Orchestra and The Ballistic Brothers and part of the trailblazing Shock Sound System, Gentleman Rudeboy, Ashley Beedle is one of UK dance music’s most well-respected figures, boasting an insane amount of iconic remix works and productions.
His most notable achievements include co-writing the iconic ‘Lazy’ ft David Byrne and topping the Jamaican and UK charts with his remixes of Bob Marley’s ‘Stand Up, Jamrock’ and Elton John’s ‘Are You Ready For Love’. Ashley is part of the No’West Production Team with wife, Jo Wallace and musical partner, Darren Morris. He is also involved in the new Black Science Orchestra project, creating new tracks with original co-founder, Rob Mello and new Scientist, Darren Morris and together, they have remixed Primal Scream’s ‘Love Insurrection’, coming out in Autumn 2024.
To donate to Ashley’s GoFundMe head to: https://gofund.me/a9a14181
Written with the permission of Ashley Beedle and his family.
