IT HAS taken 15 years and a £2.3m Lottery win for Charmaine Watson to respond to the bullies who made her school days a misery.

For she has finally found a fitting way to voice her anger and sorrow by using £20,000 of her Lottery winnings to help stage an ambitious musical about bullying in a London theatre.

Mrs Watson, who lives in Eynsham with her husband Robbie and three young children, is surely one of the most unlikely theatrical impresarios that the capital has seen for many a year.

When she won the National Lottery she had been a single mum struggling to bring up her baby son Ryan.

But her love of music coupled with her own painful experiences at Eynsham’s St Bartholomew School meant that when she heard of plans to stage a new rock musical about bullying, it immediately struck a chord with her.

It was the work of West Oxfordshire musicians Lee Wyatt-Buchan and brothers Aldie and Sandy Chalmers.

The original version of the musical had gone into local schools and won the Princess Diana award for its anti-bullying message.

But the enthusiastic reaction to what had been designed as an educational tool – with author Philip Pullman among the early fans – encouraged them to rewrite the piece as a full scale musical to be staged in London.

Word about the project reached Mrs Watson through her husband’s brother, David, a drummer who knew some of the team working on the project.

Mrs Watson, 31, said: “I’ve always enjoyed musicals. We’ve been to London to see We Will Rock You a number of times. But it never crossed my mind to get involved in something like this before.

“But when I was played the music I made up my mind to help them.

“The song Stronger Than This, the finale to the musical, really touched me. It just pulled at my heart strings. It brought back memories, but not in a bad way.

“I thought that if I had heard that song, when I was young and being bullied at school it would have made me stronger.

“I really believe that if this musical helps just one person who is a victim of bullying then, for me, it will have been worth every single penny that I’m putting into it.”

It is being performed at the Landor Theatre in Clapham from October 12 to November 12, directed by Simon Greiff, whose previous directing credits by chance include the touring production of her favourite Queen musical We Will Rock You.

The professional cast of five actors, backed by a four piece rock band, will be led by Ryan O’Donnell who played the lead role of Jimmy Cooper in a recent touring production of the Who rock opera Quadrophenia.

The show’s composers, together with Mike Dove, created Shrill productions last year to produce contemporary musicals that focus on topical issues. From studios in West Oxfordshire they also have their own school of rock where children and teenagers learn to write, record and perform their own material.

The team will doubtless be encouraged by the fact that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat had begun life as a show for schools.

Mr Dove said: “There is nothing preachy about Stand Tall. Charmaine just loved it straight away. She is now an associate producer and hopefully will be coming to the rehearsals, which are now underway and going well.

“The immediate aim is to ensure Charmaine gets to keep her money. But who knows if the review are good, maybe it could get into the West End.”