Hendrix auction for charity

Jimi Hendrix died in September 1970 aged 27

A collection of personal items from Jimi Hendrix's years in London are to be auctioned off to raise money for a drug charity.

The memorabilia has been donated by Hendrix's girlfriend of three years Kathy Etchingham.

Proceeds from the lots, which include a vintage Epiphone guitar expected to fetch £60,000, will be donated to Drugscope.

Fans will be able to buy necklaces, Woodstock posters, his lucky silver dollar and a star-spangled banner shirt which was worn at a time of political unrest.

The stars and stripe shirt was worn on stage at the Marquee Club

Unpublished photographs taken by Linda McCartney will also be included in the sale at Bonhams and Brooks auction house on 21 June.

The cheapest lots are expected to go for just a few hundred pounds.

Ms Etchingham, now a mother of two, was a 20-year-old hairdresser when she met the Voodoo Child legend in 1967.

She now wants to help young people learn the dangers of drugs.

Overdose

She said: "In the Sixties we didn't know the dangers and were told that they were harmless.

"I experimented with drugs but not on the same scale that Jimi did.

"Jimi died of a drug overdose a year after we split. But we still remained friends right up to the end.

"His death was such a shock and ever since I've been completely against the use of hard drugs."

She added: "I saw Jimi just a few hours before he died and he looked fine.

"He was a young man with everything to live for. That just shows how deadly drugs can be."