Brenda Edwards and Ed Sheeran pay tribute to Jamal on 34th birthday

Brenda Edwards has paid tribute to her late son Jamal Edwards who brought “so much joy and sunshine” into her life on what would have been his 34th birthday.

DJ and music entrepreneur Jamal, who was made an MBE for his services to music in 2014, died on February 20 2022 at the age of 31.

Loose Women panellist Brenda posted a video to Instagram featuring a host of pictures and videos of Jamal throughout his life to mark the anniversary.

The clip, which featured Ely Eira’s song This Is The Beginning in the background, included snapshots of the late musician as a baby, on holiday, DJing, laughing with his mother and playing football.

Brenda expressed her love for her son by writing “34 years ago today you brought so much joy and sunshine into my life” on the video.

She captioned the post: “I know Jamal is celebrating his Birthday today up above and you can guarantee I will be doing the same.”

Her fellow Loose Women panellists Judi Love and Denise Welch were among those to send their support with Love writing “sending you so much love sweetie” while Welch posted blue heart emojis in tribute to Jamal’s favourite colour.

Strictly Come Dancing star Layton Williams, This Morning presenter Josie Gibson and actor Danny Miller also sent their support by commenting heart emojis.

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, whose career was helped by Jamal, also remembered his close friend by sharing a photo of him to his Instagram story.

Alongside the picture, he wrote: “Happy birthday my brother, miss you every day x”.

Chelsea Football Club, Jamal’s beloved team, also shared a video to Instagram of them surprising Brenda with a £1 million donation from their foundation to the Jamal Edwards Self Belief Trust.

Set up in memory of Jamal, the trust is “designed to help underrepresented young people access fulfilling careers”, according to its website.

In the Instagram post, the Chelsea Foundation said it was going embark on a five-year partnership with the trust which will support initiatives like their Self Belief Sanctuary programme which helps “house young people at risk of homelessness” and the Self Belief Community Hub, which is a “community space in West London for young and old to come together”.

The club also said it is committing to annually funding 31 apprenticeships for the five years “to enable underrepresented young people to access fulfilling careers across a range of industries”.

Jamal gained fame after setting up the music platform SBTV in 2006 and was credited with helping to launch a string of UK music acts to stardom including Ed Sheeran, Dave and Jessie J.

He was also an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, a charity headed up by the Prince of Wales, and in 2014 was awarded an MBE for his services to music.