Architects fans raise £30,000 for hospice to honour Tom Searle

Tom Searle
Tom Searle

Architects fans have raised more than £30,000 for Martlets Hospice in Hove in memory of the late Tom Searle.

The guitarist died of cancer aged 28, following a three-year battle with the disease late last month. Since then, more than 1000 donations have been made to a JustGiving campaign set up in his name from fans across the globe.

Martlets Hospice say it’s the “biggest response” the hospice has ever seen to an online fundraising page.

The charity’s income generation director Sally Brighton says: “Whilst the fundraising is amazing, we cannot lose sight of the tragedy of Tom’s death. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and fans at this desperately sad time.

“We hope that all who loved him will find some comfort in seeing how many people have been moved to donate to Martlets. It is truly humbling.

“The funds raised will help Martlets to continue providing hospice care for local people and their families when they need us most. We are extremely grateful for everyone’s support.”

The Xcerts frontman Murray Macleod recently released an acoustic cover of Gone With The Wind to raise money for the campaign and as a tribute to his late friend.

In a letter addressed to Tom, Macleod said: “Your skill and craftsmanship within songwriting was and will forever be an absolute wonder to me. I’m glad you could never fully explain where a song came from – deep down I never wanted to find out. Thank you for the inspiration and for being a beautiful friend.”

Tom’s twin brother and bandmate Dan confirms Architects will tour their latest album All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us.

Architects’ Tom Searle was a true innovator – and a fighter to the end

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.